bacpacker
04-09-2011, 02:39 AM
Last weekend I got to go on a overnight hike with my wife, and a bunch of freinds and family. We went to Mt.Leconte in the Smoky Mountians. It's the 4th highest peak east of the Mississippi at 6593'. I know it's nothing compared to our west, but I love it.
Saturday when we started it was around 30-35 with winds around 15-20mph. As we climbed the temps stayed the same basically till we got close to the top, but the wind picked up into the 20-30mph range. The last 2 miles of the trip we started getting into hoar frost (frozen fog in the trees) and a little snow. The last mile the trail started to get pretty icy.
Once we were on top we set up our stuff, ate and messed around till about 6:45, 3 of us then went to the Cliff Tops to watch the sunset. I gotta say it was one of the best I've ever witnessed. However by this time it was down in the lower 20's and the winds had picked up into the 30 pretty steady with gust over 50mph. Neddless to say the wind chill sucked. I had layered up well so other than my hands (I took the wrong gloves) I was in good shape and got some good pics. On the way back down to camp along with 20 or so other folks up there which took forever because the trail was very icy. 2 folks fell, although no one was hurt.
I was able to spend some time reading map & compass and indentifing small towns, ridges and points off in the distance (great veiws).
Next morning temp was in the low teens, but the wind was down under 10mph. We ate, packed up and headed out. Within 100 yards we came upon a lady who was crossing a small bridge and as she was stepping down, slipped on a very bad icy patch, fell and broke her leg. There was a Dr. with her and was in the process of stabilizing it so we went on, very cautiously. We later heard from a guy in the ladies group they had flew her out in a chopper.
The first mile going back down was hazardous in spot's as anything that had melted the day before had frozen smooth and solid overnight. It wasn't froze everywhere, but in places it was for 30-50' streches and one side of the trail in this section drops off from 100-500', not somewhere you want to slip and fall at. Needless to say we took our time. I would go in front and try to point out the best places for my wife to step (she's 4-11 and I'm 6-4 so needless to say that didn't always work well. We finally made it thru that section in a hour or so. The rest of the trip was a peice of cake.
A couple of lessons learned for me. #1 for any winter trips I will have purchased a set of micro spikes to help with walking on the ice. I saw several folks who had Yaxtracks up to instep crampons. One lady I talked with who had yaxtacks, complained that they hurt her feet, but the micro spikes didn't bother her much at all, plus you could walk in gravel and roots much better. #2 make sure I have the right gloves with me. I only took thin liner gloves and my fingers were hurting up on the cliff tops. I have much more appropriate gloves to take and stupidly selected the wrong ones.
One last thing I must point out we stayed in a ladge on top of the mountian so the overnight was not bad at all. That said we used this trip to try out the GHB's and I have to say, other than a couple of bad decisions on my part everything worked as planned.
Saturday when we started it was around 30-35 with winds around 15-20mph. As we climbed the temps stayed the same basically till we got close to the top, but the wind picked up into the 20-30mph range. The last 2 miles of the trip we started getting into hoar frost (frozen fog in the trees) and a little snow. The last mile the trail started to get pretty icy.
Once we were on top we set up our stuff, ate and messed around till about 6:45, 3 of us then went to the Cliff Tops to watch the sunset. I gotta say it was one of the best I've ever witnessed. However by this time it was down in the lower 20's and the winds had picked up into the 30 pretty steady with gust over 50mph. Neddless to say the wind chill sucked. I had layered up well so other than my hands (I took the wrong gloves) I was in good shape and got some good pics. On the way back down to camp along with 20 or so other folks up there which took forever because the trail was very icy. 2 folks fell, although no one was hurt.
I was able to spend some time reading map & compass and indentifing small towns, ridges and points off in the distance (great veiws).
Next morning temp was in the low teens, but the wind was down under 10mph. We ate, packed up and headed out. Within 100 yards we came upon a lady who was crossing a small bridge and as she was stepping down, slipped on a very bad icy patch, fell and broke her leg. There was a Dr. with her and was in the process of stabilizing it so we went on, very cautiously. We later heard from a guy in the ladies group they had flew her out in a chopper.
The first mile going back down was hazardous in spot's as anything that had melted the day before had frozen smooth and solid overnight. It wasn't froze everywhere, but in places it was for 30-50' streches and one side of the trail in this section drops off from 100-500', not somewhere you want to slip and fall at. Needless to say we took our time. I would go in front and try to point out the best places for my wife to step (she's 4-11 and I'm 6-4 so needless to say that didn't always work well. We finally made it thru that section in a hour or so. The rest of the trip was a peice of cake.
A couple of lessons learned for me. #1 for any winter trips I will have purchased a set of micro spikes to help with walking on the ice. I saw several folks who had Yaxtracks up to instep crampons. One lady I talked with who had yaxtacks, complained that they hurt her feet, but the micro spikes didn't bother her much at all, plus you could walk in gravel and roots much better. #2 make sure I have the right gloves with me. I only took thin liner gloves and my fingers were hurting up on the cliff tops. I have much more appropriate gloves to take and stupidly selected the wrong ones.
One last thing I must point out we stayed in a ladge on top of the mountian so the overnight was not bad at all. That said we used this trip to try out the GHB's and I have to say, other than a couple of bad decisions on my part everything worked as planned.