Pilchuck Conquered!

It has been three weeks since we last attempted and failed to hike Pilchuck. Daniel just got back from his vacation, so we thought we’d give it another shot. We both brought snowshoes, but thought it might be possible that we wouldn’t really need them anymore. This was sooo not the case. Even though the snow had melted considerably, by maybe 2-3 feet, you still can’t drive your car up to the trailhead. We hiked in with our snowshoes in our packs. The rain was pouring down mercilessly. When we reached the trailhead, a couple was leaving; they told us the trail was still impossible to hike without proper gear.
So, we put on our snowshoes and started stomping in.Snowshoeing was surprisingly easy. I thought it would take some getting used to with these giant doo-hickeys attached to my feet, but I hardly noticed them. They make a WORLD of difference when stomping around in the snow. The first ¾ of Pilchuck was extremely easy to hike, with nice wide obvious trails and steady elevation gain. Closer to the top, things just got scary.
Everything was blanketed in snow and thick fog, you can hardly see ahead, at least the rain stopped. The trails became extremely narrow, sometimes only ONE snowshoes wide, with a steep drop down the side of the mountain if you should happen to slip. Every now and then, we had to debate if we were still on the trail, or if we were following tracks of someone that was lost.
There were times when we had to scale the side of the mountain and it felt like we were hiking up close to parallel to the mountain. I have an insane fear of height, by insane I mean I get a horrible physical reaction of weak-kneed when I look down from extreme height--I had to just keep looking at the trail and not slightly off to the side.

By the time we reached the look-out point up top, I was pretty miserable from being so freaked out. I started wondering why I thought it would be a great idea to hike a place so covered in snow that I had to wear shoes with teeth to get in. It’s obvious the mountain and weather was hinting that I shouldn’t be there. Even the plants looked frozen and miserable.
The little cabin at the look-out point was pretty cool though. It was boarded down and clipped shut, so that hikers can still access it. People had dug an access point to door. With the fog set in so thick, there wasn’t much of a view, but we hung out inside the cabin a bit for some quick lunch. Sitting around was a bad idea for me. Not moving, allowed a deep chill to set in. By the time we geared up to leave, I was sure *sob* I will never be warm again. Yeah, I’m prone to be a drama queen when I’m cold, wet and a bit miserable.

I was very worried about hiking back down in deep snow because of the steepness and snowshoes aren’t that great going downhill. Daniel, said, “Oh no, we can slide back down those hills.” I seriously thought he had gone insane. He said he happens to have extra raingear which is good for sliding because it’s waterproof and slick. I’m still thinking he’s absolutely mad. He then said, “Yeah, hikers do this all the time to save time going down, it’s called “glissade”, and it’s really fun.” I’m still not that convinced, “I can’t believe crazy hikers invented such a fancy word for sliding around on their asses. What is that? French? You’re still crazy you know that, right?” He loaned me his extra rain gear and we were off.

When passed the boulder area leading up to the cabin he pointed to the ground and said, “We can slide down here.” I gave him a dubious look, “Are you sure? This looks steep. What if you gain too much speed, lose control and slam into that tree?” He’s smiling, “No, it’ll be fine, look someone slid down here earlier, there’s a trough here.” Sure enough, there was a very distinct imprint of hiker past’s ass (my money is on pastey white ass, because again, only stupid white people do this).

Daniel went down the trough first. It looked decently safe enough; he slowed down and stopped at a flat spot. I sat down on the snow, looked around a bit, scooted forward, and slid, it took no time to pick up momentum and snow started flying everywhere. I have to say, that was the most fucking fun I’ve ever had while hiking. I was laughing so loudly with glee that had there been more snow, I would probably have caused an avalanche. After that, we were like two little kids stomping around a snow covered mountain looking for spots to slide down. Troughs made by other hikers were the best because you get more momentum from powder packed down by other people's asses. Most of the conversations were: “You think we can steer around that tree?” “Is that a cliff at the end of ledge or just another steeper drop?” We were so busy looking for sliding spots that we lost our original trail and somehow ended up on another trail. We had to backtrack a little bit while following tracks of another lost hiker. Still, we made it out mostly intact.

I probably sound a little racist with my many “crazy white people” comment…but it’s true…I am a little racist, EVERYONE is…and white people ARE crazy. You know out of the 10 or so people we saw on the trail, how many are white? All of them. Actually this is not true, there was that couple that quit very early into the trail, they were Hispanic and sane enough to know to turn back.

What did I do after the hike? I went home, showered in boiling water then went to meet up with my old high school friends. They’re all Chinese, so guess what they didn’t spend the day doing? I made it to my buddy, Nhan’s condo three hours late. By the time I got there, everyone had eaten (it was a potluck type thing) and they were at the tail end of a Guesstures game. Being that it’s an Asian gathering, there’s still enough food to feed ALL of them again and the local orphanage…we haven’t evolved past the fear of being a starving person in China part yet. I attacked some food and chatted with them. We usually get together once every 3-4 months and just hang out. It’s nice. They aren’t drinkers so they’re not exactly party friends, but they’re a big part of who I am, and they keep me grounded.

Today will probably be another work for 12-13 hours day.

Happiness is sliding around on a snow covered mountain on your ass.