Trail Pictures

Tracy in tent

Tracy in tent

Snow camping

Snow camping

West Elk Wilderness

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West Elk Wilderness - January 2003 - After hiking around Mt Sneffels, we ended up driving up

to the West Elk Wilderness.  We decided to try our hand at snow camping out there.  We hiked

in a couple of miles, and then tried to dig a camp out of the 5 feet of snow.  Of course, as a

side note, I almost drowned in snow before we got to camp.  I was looking for a good camp

site, and I snow shoed about 100 yards off the trail towards a frozen over creek.  Tracy waited

for me by the road.  I got over in some reeds, and, I am not making this up, I took a step, and

my snow shoes sunk 4 feet into the snow.  And here I thought snow shoes didn't sink.

Unfortunately, I was pretty much in an open field, and there was nothing to grab hold of to pull

myself out of the snow.  Not only that, it had warmed up, so I didn't have on my jacket or

gloves.  Moreover, the reeds near me kept Tracy from being able to see I was having

problems.  Well, it took me about 20 minutes to work myself out of the snow, and even then I

still don't know how I managed.  But, needless to say, I was REALLY cold by then.  Because of

all the weight of the snow on my snow shoes, I couldn't lift them out of the snow.  So I couldn't

get my feet up.  I finally just plunged my arm down into the snow until I found a snow shoe, and

then yanked it up.  That was fun.  But then we found a campsite, and tried to dig it out, and that

didn't work too well.  But we still set up the camp and went to bed at around 5 pm...yee haw.

Well, eventually, the condensation from our breathing made it snow on us inside the tent.  That

was cool.  And then it was about 10 pm... we had already been in the tent for 5 hours, and it

wasn't going to be light for 9 more hours.  So we decided to screw this, and we packed up and

headed out.  But that was the best part of the trip.  We got down to the trail, and there was a

full moon.  And the moon light on the snow covered rocky peaks was just amazing.  It was one

of the prettiest things I've ever seen on the trail.  The mountains looked larger than life, and it

was just really amazing.