While you were at GYC...

I was climbing Tumbledown with Petra. (Yes Christy, I do exist). As we left home, I informed Petra that my infallible sense of intuition warned of approaching doom. The drive to the trailhead was rather boring--until we reached the final dirt road. A half-inch of freezing rain had fallen over night, followed by several inches of snow. I could have skated the last three miles. The steel studs on the tires of the family van worked wonders, but the success of our traverse trembled in the balance on many a hairpin turn and steep hill. The mercury philandered between 10 and 25 degrees, but a sharp west wind made up for any inconsistencies and necessitated two sets of long johns. The trail proved as slick as the road, and Petra and I rapidly acquired a rainbow of bruises (admired late that night in the hot tub). All went reasonably badly until the final pitch--usually an easy scramble assisted by iron rungs. This time, the rungs were hidden in a frozen waterfall. In prior winter climbs, I'd tied a rock to the end of my rope, tossed it around a tree at the top of the pitch, and so secured assent. But a considerable amount of water was flowing down the face, and the rope rapidly took on the character of rebar. in the end, I took a rock and bashed a series of steps into the ice. Next time I'm bringing an ice ax...
We managed to get off the steepest section before sunset, but we still faced a long plod in the dark. Just before reaching the car, I was forced to follow Nature's call, and ended up frozen to a birch log. Suffice it to say that I was rather chilled when I finally unlocked the van. At which point I realized that Petra's doubts of my intuition's veracity were groundless. I had left the headlights on (by mistake!). We were about 6 miles from the nearest habitation. We'd been the first car on the dirt road that morning, and it looked like only one other hardy soul had passed that way. I was tossing the bullet between building a bonfire starting the long jog when a pair of headlights appeared in the distance.

I realized that I don't have photo’s to back up the ice climb section of this post, but Petra's hands were too cold to work the camera, and mine were far too busy.

Seriously, I did plan to attend GYC. I've always been blessed by attending in the past. But with relations hounding us for wedding plans, and little time for relationship building, I took an extra dose of Petra's TLC instead. I hope you'll forgive me and believe that I exist...