My son Steven and I had an incredible time on the mountain today! As I've said previously, each trip up the mountain reveals a new personality. Today a storm moved in and the snow began to fall shortly after we commenced our trek. The side we went up was well protected from the wind so the snow was a stunning addition to the first part of our journey. It piled up quickly so walking through the new powder was both beautiful and a good workout. As we ascended the fog began to thicken but we continued on up to the CCC cabin where we had a well deserved lunch. After finishing up we hit the trail, (140), all the way to the top. By the time we broke out of the trees you could just barely see the chair lift #1 hut. The mountain was closed to skiing today so there was nobody to be found. We worked our way up to the Vista House but by now the wind was really blowing, the snow felt like pins in your eyes and the fog yielded less than 15ft visibility. I knew we needed to get down fairly quickly but going down the face was not an option today due to the fog & blowing snow. It was virtually a "white out" and we needed something as a reference. I decided to follow the tree line after we found it however, once there nothing was recognizable. I had taken us off-course some distance. (i.e. - in the route you'll notice at about mile marker 4 I made a complete "U" turn and didn't even realize it!) We found a small group of trees for a brief shelter and also a location that enabled me to consult my GPS. Thank goodness I had that device! It was extremely valuable today in two ways; 1) it indicated we were some distance from where we needed to be and 2) it allowed me to navigate us back on course. I'm convinced this device "saved our bacon" today. I never, nor will I ever travel in the mountains without it. I also have a compass and map & know the area quite well but today in a whiteout those items were virtually useless. This was my son's first time on snowshoes and he did an outstanding job. Next time I'm hopeful we'll have a bit clearer skies so he can enjoy the many vistas along this route. Didn't take many photos today and they don't really paint the true picture but one can gather how hard it was snowing and I only took a couple photos after reaching the summit because once we headed down the visibility was extremely limited. Again, never go up without being prepared.
(NOTE - disregard the "moving" and "stopped" times and the avg and max speeds as they are completely inaccurate due to a non-programmable parameter in my tracking device.)