Another camp spot that I will never forget! Not only because it was an awesome spot, but also what happened the next morning.
I was going to cross the Muir Pass (3644m) where I expected to walk on snow for miles. This is old, compacted snow from the previous winter which is easy to pass early in the morning after a frosty night, after the top layer is frozen. But after a few hours of sunshine, the top layer melts and then when you try to walk on it you frequently sink in, sometimes waist-deep. That is so tiring! So I camped close to the snow line, so that I could walk on the snow when it was still solid.
I camp at this beautiful spot (3383m) close to the Muir Pass! Just before the snow startsAfter I set off the next morning, I discovered that another guy camped just a few hundred meters further. We had never noticed each others presence. The guy proposed to cross the pass together for safety, so that is what we did. As hoped, the snow is still solid with the frozen top layer. At places it is slippery, but using our microspikes it is an easy walk.
Crossing this massive snowfield just after the summit of the pass. Frozen surface, easy with micro spikesAfter we have passed all the snow, we removed our microspikes. Then, disaster struck! The guy slipped on a flat but ice-covered surface and fell on his arm. He screamed in pain and at first I thought his arm was broken. Later it turned out that it wasn’t broken, but he could hardly use his arm anymore.
We were in the middle of nowhere, and the next road where he could possibly be evacuated (with a private chartered car) was still 3 days walking – including crossing passes and through snow. I was afraid that if he sank into the snow (you often sink in waist-deep) he would not be able to get out with just one arm, so I decided to stay with him in the coming days.
That may sound like a sacrifice on my part, but I myself didn’t walk that fast anymore due to having broken a hiking pole on a previous pass and we got along very well. To avoid soft snow, we also camped at incredibly beautiful places. So I have very nice memories of these days.
My tent at Sallie Keyes Lake, one of our most beautiful camp spots. Twice we see an osprey picking a fish out of the water here!. You can see my bear-proof food canister next to the rockA day later, the guy's arm looked horrible. His entire arm was blue-black and his hand was swollen to a gigantic size. Fortunately, hiking went without problems. After five days he was able to take a bus to a hospital for a check, but by that time he was already slowly improving. He did eventually finish in Canada.
