It was the first winter trip of the season for the A.A.S. The goal, Latir (12,708) and Venado (12,680) Peaks. Macaca (James Wedekind) joined Eric the Viking, St Paulie Boy and Dan on his first AAS adventure.
The weather was cold and dry. There was just enough broken ice on Heart Lake for up to punp water from. It was a bit colder than we thought. It was 16 Friday night at beddy-bye time and 25 Saturday night. We woke to 2 inches of new snow in camp Sunday morning and it snowed till we hiked out.
Big Horn sheep managing not to get blown away in the 40-50 mph wind.
The summit day was spent wrapped up in wind proofing; each hiker deep in their own heads, fighting the physical and mental beating the unrelenting wind delivered. We found comfort on the ridges leaning against each other in a huddle like water buffalo, to rest and get a break from the wind! How sweet ;-)
Wind on the summit, wind on the ridges, wind on the plateau, wind on the slopes...and bad wind in the tents. There was snow on all of the lee slopes and we wished we had skis with ski-crampons to take advantage of it!
Paul facing East, performing his prayers to the mountain gods for safe passage ;-)NEXT MISSION PLEASE !!!
