tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3814464431995035927.post6013934185920596564..comments2024-03-18T10:33:45.820-04:00Comments on Mountain Wandering: Steve Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16403760631302934834noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3814464431995035927.post-70075784728155665092012-01-21T16:04:43.739-05:002012-01-21T16:04:43.739-05:00Thanks, John!Thanks, John!Steve Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16403760631302934834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3814464431995035927.post-84364816855371920312012-01-21T09:48:59.523-05:002012-01-21T09:48:59.523-05:00Excellent choice for a short hike in winter, and e...Excellent choice for a short hike in winter, and especially with the type of winter we've been experiencing! As your photos demonstrate, you were blessed with some good viewing conditions, which recently seem to be in short supply. And wow . . . what a surprise to find the trailhead parking lot completely empty, especially on a good-weather day!<br /> <br />Thanks Steve for another report that was not only enjoyable to read, but also instructive in terms of the peak identification notations included in your text!<br /><br />John1HappyHikerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02242409292439585691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3814464431995035927.post-52530300873190204312012-01-21T07:44:35.456-05:002012-01-21T07:44:35.456-05:00Wow, Raymond, that is quite a tale! Thanks for sha...Wow, Raymond, that is quite a tale! Thanks for sharing. If there's ice present, Welch-Dickey can certainly have its scary moments.<br /><br />SteveSteve Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16403760631302934834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3814464431995035927.post-43381894322102047372012-01-20T23:58:03.298-05:002012-01-20T23:58:03.298-05:00Oh, man.
First time I was up there was the day af...Oh, man.<br /><br />First time I was up there was the day after Thanksgiving, 1998. My son was 7 years old, and despite the conditions, I kept climbing up. He wanted to turn around, but I wanted to climb the mountains, so I insisted we keep going. Dumb, dumb, dumb.<br /><br />We lost the trail twice, although the place seemed to be crawling with other hikers. Some of them helped Cam get up a particularly icy ledge that if he had ever slipped off of would have been the end of him. He would have just been over the precipice and gone.<br /><br />We made it to the top of Welch, and I felt it was too risky to go back the way we’d come, so onward to Dickey we went. We mistakenly followed some footprints down a long ledge just after summiting and the trail, of course, disappeared at the bottom. I was really getting worried by this time, and even shouted for help, but there was no one to hear.<br /><br />I realized we would have to go back up, which was difficult, but once we did I saw a cairn — the trail! — and we were home free, except that Cam’s gloves were wet and his hands were cold and we still had several more ledges to traverse, including that real big one with the scary drop-off on the left. That one also had a line of icy footprints along the top, and the sun was right on the horizon as we walked along, but once we were back in the woods we just hustled as best we could and got back to the car before it was too dark to see.<br /><br />No wonder I was spooked for years afterward whenever I’d read about some mountain I wanted to climb which had a steep ledge.Raymond (VFTT)https://www.blogger.com/profile/08432046448145536180noreply@blogger.com