Been a while
May 11, 2024
OK, OK I’m gonna try this voice to text thing again and I’m trying to make my stories more cohesive so they’re easier to read and understand. Hopefully that’ll make reading these less like a puzzle of grammar issues and misspellings you have to put together. I started yesterday later than I wanted to the bike ride was so hard! I got passed by three people on E bikes in the last mile it was pretty funny. As a joke I asked them for tow but one of them agreed. Then I thought about it and realize there’s no way I could control the bike and hold onto another bike, cause it was so bumpy and I said no. then I caught back up to them at the trailhead they were funny. The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful. I made it to the north end of culchuck lake. Went to bed at like 10 found an awesome random dry spot to camp on so I didn’t have to camp on snow which seems slightly less miserable. I laid there for a hour trying to sleep I just kept hearing rockfalls like every maybe 10 minutes. They did not give me high hopes for climbing Asgard the next day because if a rock fall happens in front of you while you’re climbing, in avalanche terrain, you’re now in an avalanche + ROCKS. I woke up at 3:30 started walking at like 410. I had 2 miles around the Lake to get to the base of Asgard pass which is the avalanche terrain. Walking around the lake the snow conditions were just great. I was walking on the top layer of snow (John reminded me of a great memory of walking on top of the crust of snow as a kid) If I Had to climb something I could easily kick steps into it These were pristine conditions were but then I got to the pass and conditions changed a lot. The top 8 inches of snow felt like big like sugar crystals. You could wipe your hand through it, pick it up and crumpled it in your fingers. Below that was like 4 inch layer of sticky snow and it was less dense or equal density to the sugar layer so I didn’t want to collapse and then you just sliding a 10 inch avalanche. I was worried about avalanches so I went back, sat around the lake watched the sunrise ate some food drank water have a nice like 20 minute break. Started walking heading back down to the main trail. I talked to two dudes in tents that they had plans going to the core zone too, but I think they tried last night and conditions were bad so they said no. Hours down the trail I ran into two kids on vacation from Europe and they were like 8 miles into their hike with no food no water, just tennis shoes grabbed some sticks from the ground, I must have looked like a whenny to them with all my gear lol. Cudos to them! Instead of going home I’m gonna walk around the whole zone. walked to Stewart like to just I don’t know put more miles in and I see this amazing view. This is the best I’ve seen all day. And I stand there in front of this amazing view just like recharging my soul and then I realized I have my glasses in my pocket. I’ve been carrying them all day. I haven’t been wearing them because it was cold and the time wasn’t right for them. I put them on and was in awe of the true beauty of the mountains. Great trip 10/10