This was winter mountaineering at its finest. We began trekking in snowshoes up the right hand side of the drainage three and a half miles north of Alma. It began as a road, switchbacking up. When the road crossed the creek we cut up to remain on the right side.

On a steep section where Laila floundered in the deep snow I passed Sam's leash to her, thinking it would give her a needed boost. When she lost her grip on the leash Sam was gone! Sprinting to freedom he vanished around the bend. We soon found his tracks heading downslope. We forged on in hope that he would soon follow.

Soon we rejoined the road for a stretch, then once again forged upward when the road seemed to end. Our general direction was to keep the drainage to our right...

Soon I spotted Sam well above us. I called him, but he was oblivious--reveling in his freedom he bounded upward through the soft snow.

Meanwhile we two-legged creatures labored up and up in our snowshoes and high tech gear. Fifteen minutes after the last Sam sighting he had tired and deigned to join us. Grabbing his leash, Laila had a helpful "sled dog" pull to aid her on her way up.

After an hour we reached the crest of the initial section. Looking down we saw about 300 or more feet of elevation loss, followed by traversing across willows buried in snow by the creek we would cross. To cross willows in snow means often plunging much deeper than in windswept portions. The willows collect the snow and keep it soft...

Silverheels loomed far in the distance...its gentle west ridge our next objective. To reach that ridge we had a steep climb up rock and snow. We aimed just above the first granite knob on the west ridge.

Once on the ridge our next sight to focus on was another granite knob. I went up and over, while Laila and Jonathon traversed right. The wind was kicking up above treeline blowing snow. The snow plumes gave a measure to estimate the wind speed--45 to 50 MPH. We made sure we Kept our gloves on and our faces out of the wind.

 

Meanwhile, time was ticking on. This time of year is near dead-on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. We knew the sun would be setting at 4:45 P.M.

As we struggled up the west slope in the teeth of the wind and cold, we were frustrated by a series of false summits. The final false summit left the actual peak seemingly "too" far away--it was 3:20 P.M. We didn't hesitate though and just kept on reaching the top at 3:45 P.M., three hours after we had started. We had one hour before the sun went down.

We now had to move to get down before it got too dark. We went down the west ridge all the way this time, because the elevation loss was less. Crossing the creek higher we aimed for the apparent road to the right of where we had reached on the way up.

 

As we neared the road I espied a doe elk loping across the snow. I yelled to Jonathan to grab Sam's leash. He was under firm control for the duration of our journey!

Soon we found our tracks and were able to follow them on down. As the "lights went out" Jonathan guided us with his headlamp and we arrived at the truck around 6 P.M.

Next objective: The Fairplay Hotel for a warm dinner!