HAYDEN GLACIER
I SLEPT SO WELL
We got a text pretty last minute to go to Alex and Hannah’s for Alex’s birthday. The hang-out didn’t start until 7 PM and Tatum needed to go to bed by 730 so we made a quick appearance. I did my best to pack up gear and food before leaving for the party. We made a quick stop by REI and I was going to buy some better sunglasses but I bailed. (Sure wish I would have bought some!)
After I dropped off the girls and tossed my gear in the car it was about 845. I made it to Pole Creek by 9:45 and parked next to Bobby. We both had to use some rocks to level out the truck and it was drizzling just a bit. I decided I would try to use blankets and have my sleeping bag just in case I needed it. Bobby and I came up with a plan for the morning and went to bed pretty quickly. Both of us had some organization to do in the AM. Right as I laid down I realized I forgot my Patagonia mid-layer. Then I passed out.
When I woke up I thought it was the middle of the night - It was still dark and I heard birds which made sense to me for a split second because I was camping - then I realized I had been hitting snooze and it was past 5 am. I rarely hit snooze... I was conked out! It felt great. I slept on the truckbed next to the camp setup and layered the blankets on top of me and an extra pad on the side of the bed because the truck was tilted a bit. I was super cozy. Bobby and I both had to shake off some cobwebs when it came to getting our gear ready. I made some instant back-porch coffee and ate a peanut butter tort. After double checking we had all of our stuff and debating on bringing a puffy or not we were ready to rock.
The start of the hike was pretty standard progamming for bobby and I . . Fast paced eveything. We covered a lot of ground before the sun was up and just as many topics haha. Both of us were feeling pretty spry.
When We got to snow in the trees we had a pretty easy time finding less deep patches so we would post-hole too bad. We took a quick break getting close to tree line - pretty much where we always take a quick break. Once we got to treeline we started getting wet feet - it definitely rained the night before and the snow wasn’t as firm as would have been ideal. We debated breifly about what we wanted to accoplish for the day and both of us clearly were flirting with the ideal of bailing until bobby suggested tossing on our ski boots.
SKI BOOTS SAVE THE DAY!
I felt like iron man after stepping into ski boots. No more wet feet or worring about post-holing. Also the added ankle support was a game changer. Funny how a few months off and you can forget these things. We ate a pretty good snack before switching into boots so we were set to make it to the saddle. Like always, I started to take to many photos and fall behind and bobby started frothing and picked up his pace. So like any big day I have a lot of shots of small bobby in big landscape. We slapped on skis and skins once we got of the ridge and on to the glacier. It felt wild to be back in ski mode.
Another predictable thing happened - I gassed myself catching up with bobby and started feeling tired as we made it close to the saddle. I didnt really care I was too preoccupied with how cool the landscape looked with less snow then we usually are on. Some exposed cravases made for a rad sight.
It was fun thiking about being a dad as I was touring. It feels good to be youthful and healthy and know that I’ll keep these passions up as I’m a dad so I can share it with Tatum. I’m not sure if she’ll be into skiing or back country skiing but whatever she’s into I can’t wait to see her get as excited as I get traveling on that glacier.
When we got to the saddle we talked about a possible summit. I was pretty worked by felt like I could make it happen. There was asection of snow on the way up that seemed like it was decent skiing. We decided to just ski and not add (an hour according to bobby lol) to our day. The skiing was sticky for the most part but mid way through you could partially put your gaurd down and we got some propper spring style turns. It was gooood to be back!
The skiing was fun and getting to our shoes was an adventure - we had left them out on a rock and dropped a pin where they were. We put our shoes on prematurely and the snow has thawed out signifcantly since we had gone up and back. I got a bit grumpy about my feet being in puddles. I bounced back pretty fast especially once we hit a trail.
We were both hurting from out pack. Conversation continued to flow but it was obvious we were ready to take out packs of by the end.
Jordan and Tatum were the perfect distance away from sisters to meet us at the barn once we wrapped up. We all met up for a bite and some beers. I bought on of those watermelon drinks at market of choice and left it in a shady spot in the bed of the truck. I chugged it once I got my pack off and bought another one at the barn!
