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Snowstorm @ Blue Lakes
Day 28
Date: 29.05.2022
CDT Mile: 806.2 Mile
Miles hiked: 17.1 miles \ 27.4 km
Elevation: 2395 feet ascent (Aufstieg 730 m) / 2198 descent (Abstieg 670 m)
Camping at: 11'512 feet / 3'508 m
What a night! Not much sleep at all with this wind, but luckily it died down in our little valley in the morning. We climb up the ridge to the South San Jan Wilderness Boundary where the wind picked up again. It's very cold! More snowfields are coming up as I approach the dipping lakes for lunch, a beautiful spot to stop. After lunch I go ahead and climb up a sketchy snowfield. The weather changes, the wind picks up and heavy, dark clouds cover the sky. I stop every now and then for a little break so the group can catch up. However, only Patches comes along and together we hike on. At lunch we discussed where to set camp tonight and it is still quite a way to hike. We keep on moving over more snowfields and trails and keep on stopping for little breaks, but no one appears. As it starts to hail, just before we have to climb a pass, we decided to head on and over the pass before the weather changes for worse. It's about 5 more miles to the decided camp site at Blue Lakes and it's just before 5 pm, which actually should not be a big deal. But we keep on loosing the trail many times because of the snowfields and all the water from the melting snow. Also we have no clue where the group is. Additionally, the wind is giving us a hard time moving. We tried finding a suitable camp site along the way, cause we don't think the rest of the group is gonna make it to Blue Lakes tonight, but there is not really a good site which is flat, dry and covers us from the wind. The last 2 miles to reach Blue Lakes were insane. Only snowfields, no trail at all, giving us a hard time navigating, hiking and postholing. And the weather is getting worse too, I feel frightened being out in that high altitude in the wild with no possibility to reach civilisation soon, and also not being with the group under this circumstances. Luckily Patches is with me.
It takes us like 1.5 hours to finally reach the beautiful Blue Lakes. Both of us are very tired, we have hardly any energy left. It has been a long day and 17 miles in these conditions are a solid performance. It takes us another 30 minutes to decide on a camp ground. It seems windy everywhere and finally we just pitch the tent at a flat site, being too tired to look around any further. Just as we pitched the tent a snowstorm rolls in. Within no time it snowed about 6 inches. My tent is covered in snow. We just made it in time! Crawling into our sleepingbags, the wind is howling and it is still snowing, as just when we were about to fall asleep, it also starts lightening. At first I didn't know what it is. Suddenly it got very bright in the dark, as if someone is standing outside the tent with a porch put on us. And then the thunder comes, so loud and short after the lightening that it must have hit the ground very close to us. That spectacle goes on for a while. When I woke up in the middle of the night my sleeping bag was covered in snow. The wind blew the snow into the tent. Also the condensation from breathing in the tent has turned to ice inside the tentwalls. If we move, little iceparts fall down on us. I am worried that our sleepingbags are getting wet and if the weather doesn't change to good tomorrow, we would have wet sleepingbags for the next 3 or 4 days, which would be horrible. What an adventurous day! I truly hope for better weather tomorrow and that we rebound with the group.
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