Midway Weather

Saturday, December 3, 2011

peak poachin'


Last night I took off on a late night 'poaching' session up through the back side of town.  My destination was Castle Rock, the highest and farthest accessible point from town.  Technically it requires two people, a radio and check-out with the fire department.  Oh and the summit is still closed due to poor snow conditions.  But I decided to solo it anyway.

The hike out was brisk, but pleasant.  No real difficulties encountered on the hard packed snow to speak of.  Fortunately the short summit route was well protected with fixed ropes and easy to surmount.  Once on top, I took shelter in the lee and soaked in Antarctica for quite some time.  It was the mental space I've been hoping to find down here; absolute quite and distances that are hard to comprehend.  The sweeping landscape makes even my deep wilderness adventures in Alaska seem tame by comparison.

View from Castle Rock at 1:30AM

 After some time, I stumbled down to the emergency shelter at the base of the outcropping and climbed into one of the sleeping bags for the best nights sleep I've had since arriving.

2 comments:

  1. And no one noticed you had gone missing? Oh Yeah, that must make you feel special.

    ReplyDelete