Cold Wind
Continued from prior post…
Now that our bodies had some time to recover from the physical punishment of the day and we each had a warm meal in our bellies, it was time for sleep. We each did a little work before fully retiring—getting our things cleaned-up and beginning the organization process that would help us the next morning. Then, I climbed into my tent and sleeping bag for some rest. Much like the prior night, the temperatures were forecasted to get down into the 30’s. And our tent arrangement really gave us a lesson in air movement.
As I noted in a prior Blog post, the wind would blow through camp at night in such a way it sounded like somebody was walking right by my tent. Further adding to the illusion, our tents were arranged under a rock ledge in precisely the path the cold wind would follow as it fell to lower altitudes from the high mountain looming above us. This caused the wind to ruffle my tent’s rain-fly first. A second later, I could hear it moving the outer shell of my neighbor’s tent and then his neighbor’s tent. It was a cycle that repeated itself all throughout the night. The cold air above us on the melting snow and ice would swoop down the mountain in waves and rush through camp on its way to lower elevations below. It would have been pleasant white noise to sleep by, except for the fact it sounded like a person walking by the edge of our tents when it happened.
Trail Camp was on a small plateau surrounded on three sides by large mountains that collected the cool air and sent it rushing through camp on its way to escape on the fourth side to lower ground. It was quite a lesson on physics for all of us. When I would go outside to admire the stars and take care of some biological needs in the middle of the night, it made all the sense in the world and was actually quite amazing to experience. But once I was sealed back up inside my bag and tent, it became an odd phenomenon that kept waking me up as my brain kept telling me there was someone walking by the tent within inches of me. It was quite the odd phenomenon.
Ultimately, despite my natural body clock being set for later, I was awake at dawn the next morning. Much like our summit day, I was a bit apprehensive about the knee I had injured on our training hikes and not wanting to hold up our group on the way down. Therefore, I wanted to try and get out in front of everyone. It was still quite cold at that hour, but I was up and working in short order. I heated up some water for tea and breakfast and started the process of getting everything repacked to ride down the mountain on my back.
To be continued…
