HELL FROZEN OVER
I
woke early on Friday, but the light seemed odd.
It didn’t take long to figure out why.
There was at least an inch of fresh snow on the tent. I emerged into a winter wonderland. The entire campground was blanketed in fresh
snow, and the wind was still howling.
The snow was actually coming at me horizontally. I’d planned a 9 mile loop hike to The Bowl
and Mount Hunter, but conditions did not look promising. The hike is tough, with 3,000’ of elevation
gain. The Park suggests allowing 6-9
hours for the hike, and that is in good conditions. These conditions were definitely not good.
I
had breakfast burritos on the menu, but the picnic table was covered in
snow. After checking the park map, I
decided to drive down the road a couple of miles to a picnic area. This worked out nicely, as the roof kept most
of the snow at bay. However, the wind
was still howling. I had to constantly
relight one stove, while the other was completely worthless. When I wasn’t fighting with the stoves, I was
chasing various items being blown around by the wind. In fact, I had to keep one hand on the frying
pan at all times. I eventually managed
to cook breakfast, which was quite an achievement. Unfortunately my coffee was barely
lukewarm. I made a second cup with a
packet of Starbucks instant coffee, which worked better. I was able to drink it immediately, before it
lost its heat.
I
stopped at the visitor’s center to check on conditions. The ranger told me that The Bowl had 2-3’
snow drifts from previous storms. Recent
reports indicated that it was possible to hike through there, but that it would
be very slow. There would also be
significant exposure to high winds at the upper elevations. Considering that everything more than a few
hundred feet higher than the campground was in a complete whiteout, my original
plan seemed to be somewhere between pointless and dangerous.
After
talking with the ranger, I decided to hike the Devil’s Den slot canyon
instead. That was a much shorter hike,
and it would be protected from the wind.
If I had extra time, I could do part of McKittrick
Canyon afterwards. McKittrick
is longer, but easy.
I
drove back over to the RV portion of the campground, which is basically a large
parking lot with a heated bathroom and a few picnic tables. Several trails start here, including
Guadalupe Peak, Devil’s Den, and the trail to The Bowl. I changed clothes in the bathroom and hit the
trail, which had a couple of inches of fresh snow. There were no tracks, indicating that I was
the only person that was stubborn enough to hike on such as hostile day.
The
first mile of the hike was along a mostly open hillside. There were some scattered trees and shrubs,
along with lots of prickly pear and other cacti. The trail then dropped down into a dry wash,
where it ends. From there, it is
necessary to scramble and bushwhack up the wash to reach the slot canyon. This was fairly easy, though the fresh snow made
for tricky footing in places. There were
a number of spots were care was needed to avoid stepping in holes disguised by
the snow.
When
I reached the Hiker’s Stairway I knew I was getting close. The stairway is a steep dropoff
rippled with lots of little ledges.
Under normal conditions you can walk right up the ledges to continue up
into the slot canyon. However, with the
snow, I had trouble getting enough traction.
I was seriously concerned about busting my ass. I thought about resorting to the Yaktrax, but
I’m not sure how much they would’ve helped.
The ledges were only a few inches deep, and this was powdery snow, not ice. Instead, I
scrambled up the cliff on the left and then descended to a ledge part of the
way up the stairway. There is a deep
pool here that spans most of the canyon.
I thought it was frozen, but it only had a thin layer of ice and
slush. The pool was deeper than my
trekking pole, and falling into it in sub-freezing conditions would’ve created
an instant survival situation. I
carefully tip-toed around it on snow-covered rocks and scrambled up the second
level of the Hiker’s Stairway.
More
open wash led to the slot canyon proper.
Here the cliff walls are maybe 10’ apart, and at least 60’ high. Unlike most slot canyons, this one is
completely straight. The floor was
covered in fresh snow, too. If this was
the Devil’s Den, Hell must’ve frozen over.
I
poked around for a bit before starting back.
I was extremely careful descending past the icy pool. From there, the hike out was a simple matter
of following my footsteps in the snow.
Well, that worked for a while.
However, towards the lower end of the wash, my footprints were largely
erased by fresh snow and wind. By the
time I finished the blizzard had largely subsided, though the occasional squall
reminded me why I’d avoided the high elevation hikes. The higher peaks were still lost in the
clouds, so my decision had been wise.
It
was 2pm when I returned to the parking lot.
I had soup and hot cider for lunch.
After that, I wasn’t real interested in another hike in the wind and
snow. Instead, I headed over to the
visitor’s center, where I spent a couple of hours charging my laptop and going
through my photos. The ranger’s liked my
photos of Devil’s Den in the snow, and I offered to send them a few of the better
ones once I finished going through them.
Once
back in the car I heard something scurrying around. My suspicions were confirmed – I was sharing
the mini-van with a mouse. There wasn’t
really anything I could do about it, so I just left the bag of trail mix out where
it would be easy for him to get to it.
Hopefully he would be satisfied with that and stay out of the rest of my
food.
I
was getting ready to leave the visitor’s center when I noticed that the clouds
were finally beginning to break up. It
happened just in time for a spectacular light show at sunset. El Capitan looked like it was on fire as the
rays of the setting sun lit up the towering cliff face.
I
returned to my campsite and made soup, salad, and vegetarian jambalaya on the
snow-covered picnic table. I headed to
bed early, as I had a big day planned for Saturday. I hoped to finally hike up Guadalupe Peak,
the highest mountain in Texas.
Afterwards, I had a 4 hour drive to Terlingua
on the edge of Big Bend National Park.
Back to Texas
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Please remember to Leave No Trace!