Senior Hiking #384 Schweitzer

26° down to 20°

Dec 27, 2010…Schweitzer …hike # 384…
last hike of the year
by Betsy

Since we are still in Christmas week, we headed up to the firehouse to avoid the crowds and to hike up and behind the resort. It was cold and windy as we set out…thinking I would work up a sweat on the steep beginnings, I left my outer layer precip off. Big mistake as the wind didn’t let up and the temps just kept dropping. I finally had to put the face mask on as well. Jim only wore summer pants and short sleeve shirt…with just the precip on. What was he thinking? But he did wear his Christmas present, the down mittens which I convinced him he would love. He also did wear his warm hat under his hood. There was no Rex waiting for us and although there were rigs parked outside, we could see no signs of firemen.

There was much more snow on the trail than we thought and no tracks so Jim had to break trail. We passed on going up the steep “televator hill” and just stayed on the normal trail. What a nice surprise as we got up further and saw that someone had put the measuring tape up again. We have missed it for the last several years. The snow measured barely 4’. Where is the snow?

Next week I am wearing my nice hand knit by me wool sweater…I sure could have used it today. And as much as I raved about the down mittens last week, today my thumbs DID get cold as well as my hands, even with HotHands inside. Of course it was much colder today and we had more wind than last week…and I had my hands out much more adjusting stuff. They are still much better than my old mitts.

As we got into an open area, the winds was roaring and the huge drifts were evidence than it had been blowing that way for a while…at one point, wind blew my nose wiper right up covering my face…my thought was…who turned out the lights? Jim took a pic.

We ran into several; people, most of whom, I assumed, were condo folks out for a little jaunt on the short loop. It got colder and colder, with the temperature now at around 19°-20°, having dropped very quickly. The plan was to get up to the run…Ridge Run I think it called…to check the view, which was 99% socked in with fog…we had about 20 seconds to get a glimpse of the village and then that was gone as well. A few skiers came down the steep run…we stayed out of their way, and then headed down to the trail with the wind at our backside. Lunch, which we ate in a sheltered spot before heading down, was later than usual today. It was cold.

Left home 10:00Started up 10:30
Turned around 1:40
Got to truck 3:30
Total miles hiked 7 miles
Total hiking time 5 hours