Scotch Bonnet
The night before, I slept 1.5 km away from the survey because snow blocked the road.
In the prairie, 1.5 km would take 30 minutes to walk; here, I gave myself 45 minutes because, after looking at the topo, I saw that the road went right to the first point, and I didn’t think the snow or elevation would be a problem.
The white lines are 2-tracks.
See how dark the map is south of the points: that means it’s steep. I know that, but it didn’t bother me the night before.
Sunrise was 0537.
I left the car at 0450. As it began to get light, I saw a mountain in front of me. The survey was on the other side.
I panicked that I would be late, but I couldn’t go faster; I punched through the snow in places where it was hard enough to walk on top, and swam through the slush where it wasn’t.
I finally got to the eastern saddle at 0600, 23 minutes late.
When I looked over, surprise, the survey was covered in snow.
Below is the view of the saddle from the survey (see the saddle on the right).
After the sun came out:
I had thought to wear my snow pants, but not my gaiters, and snow got in my boots. My feet were so cold it made me cry.
My Warren Miller film:
The Highwood barbed wire ripped a hole in the butt of my snow pants; Scotch Bonnet ripped off the duct tape I had used to repair it.
American Pipets were here eating bugs off the snow.
American Pipet
by Michael J Good
Snow Scorpionfly
Empty
After I finished the lower points and started climbing to the higher points, the snow in my boots melted, the water around my feet warmed up, and I was happier.
Mountain Chickadees live here.
Mountain Chickadee
And Yellow-rumped Warblers.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
American Robin
Pika live in the rocks here.
Pika
See the trees on the left below, I held on to them and did a controlled fall down to the road.
Found a miner’s cell phone.
