common sense

So I did it.  I booked into the local hostel on friday night.  Not because it was going to be the coldest night for the next week, but mostly because I felt sick and I was tired of trying to kick a cold while sleeping in the truck.  well, a shower was nice too.

At any rate, yesterday morning I met Nicolai and Robert (which isnt his name but it's close), two friends who met at princeton from Bulgaria and Germany, respectively.  They announced plans to go snowshoeing, and so did I, so we went together.

Nicolai is a PhD student in molecular biology at princeton, while Robert is a PhD student in computer science at MIT.  Smart dudes for sure.  they were here for one more day, but the rest of their group of 11 left yesterday.  Apparently they had been raging all day long on cross country skiis and snowshoes for the past 10 days.  They were good guys, very friendly, and good company.  I feel, though, that they lack some sense when it comes to the woods.

Today they intended to snowshoe into death canyon, a feat accomplished by a few other members of the group a week ago.  They heard there was a trail.  We left town and checked in at the visitors center, where the woman working there gave us some sketchy details on how to hike into death canyon.  she did not, however, ask if we had a map, which we didn't.  I guess I assumed that Nic and Rob knew where they were going, which was a stupid assumption.

In the winter, summer trails are nonexistent.  What do exist are whatever tracks people feel like making.  They may not follow the summer trails, but most summer trails are probably tracked.  So basically there are tracks everywhere, especially somewhere so frequented as the front range of the tetons. 

So we drove out the road, which looked strangely familiar, and parked.  The hike was expected to take about six hours, and it was 11:15.  Robert remarked that we could easily hike until 7.  alarms went off in my head.  no way I'd be caught dead in the tetons after dark without a headlamp, a map, an emergency blanket, and a damn good reason.

The road continued in front of us, and the lady told us to keep going on the road.  So we did.  In a mile there was a trail to the left...of course how are we to decide what to take, we have no map.  I carried my gps, as I always do now after Rebecca and my sixth? attempt on Mt. Shuksan in the cascades.  that was an important lesson in trusting tracks left in snow.

So we didn't no where to go, and that's about when I realized that hiking into death canyon was probably a terrible idea anyway without a map.  Of course there were other people (none of which had a map??).  They gave us a variety of instructions, some of which were wrong, but eventually we deduced that we had gone the wrong way.  We turned around, hiked the 1.5 mile back to the car, and left on the "other" road from the parking spot.  

Along the way my companions, in what I assume is their desire to see death canyon from the top, passed a variety of maps.  I stopped and did my best to memorize the landscape.  It wasnt too hard, there were a few valleys and a big lake, but summer trails went all over.

So we made some wrong turns, asked some directions, inquired about the weather (the wind picked up and clouds were coming in).  As the weather started to turn I got nervous.  About this time, too, we talked about it and agreed that turning around at about 2:30, regardless, was a good idea.  So now, with some sort of plan in place, and with the gps getting good signal just in case, I felt better.

We never did make it up death canyon.  It was filled with clouds and my companions agreed that it wasn't worth it without the views.  good enough reason for me.  We trekked across the frozen lake nearby and caught up with our first tracks out that wrong road.

Along the way we saw some moose, friendly people (some of which turned around earlier than we did), and nice views.  As it turns out, I've hiked this before!  It all looked vaguely familiar, but I assumed that lots of teton stuff would look familiar.  Then we got to what was, three years ago, Rebecca, Christian, and my campsite for a multi-pitch ice climb.  It rained that night we camped, so our plans were foiled, but I could see the climb today.  It looked gnarly.

At any rate, we had a good 6/7 mile snowshoe, didnt get lost, and I got some free dinner at the hostel last night.  Nic took some pictures, I'll get them up here when he sends them to me.

Always carry a map.

There are some people that with which I do not want to go into the backcountry.

and if nic or the german MIT student that I call robert read this, please be careful.

too many words for no pictures...I'll try not to do that again.