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Opis:
This was one rough trip into the Adventure Zone; there was way more snow in Mayflower & Pacific Gulches than I had anticipated. The hiking past the road was super slow and strenuous. I literally swam through the deep snow, up steep inclines until I emerged onto the rocky exposed west ridge of Atlantic Peak. I only continued on thinking I may as well get my workout in for the day before giving up with little hope of escaping the deep snow at all. Above the deep snow was relatively easy going on hard thin snow slabs and rock up to about 13,000ft. At that altitude the wind velocity dramatically increased and the direction changed from north west to west, I had passed through a huge wind shear I could visualize impacting the upper portion of Pacific Peak. The changing wind direction left me completely exposed and unable to find shelter from wind chills way below zero. Fearing frost bite in my hands and feet I chose to turn back at roughly 13,500 ft after completing the technical cruxes of the route, moderate class 2 climbing on a narrow ridge capped with a shallow cornice, that part was EPIC! but stopping at all felt dangerous as I lost body heat instantly, had no wind block and felt too cold to dig in my pack for my fat puffy, I should have put it on earlier! opps! It was surprising how quickly conditions improved again on my descent, by the time I reached the lower section of ridge sunshine was drenching the area!
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