Day 47: Weminuche Wilderness

Mileage: 14.5 miles(767-781.5)

I woke up early after a very restful sleep and had hot coffee for the first time on the trail. It was instant and so good. We started off  the day easy following tracks from our mystery snowshoer. The snow was crusty so we didn't need snowshoes on our end. We were excited to meet the guy breaking trail so we pressed on all morning, hoping to catch-up.

By around noon we came up to the ridge where the Creede cutoff, a much shorter alternate route, diverged. At this point, the divide is tracing essentially tracing a giant 100+ mile 'C' around the town of Creede, making it one of the only places that can claim that it's East, South, and North of the Continental Divide. To our dismay, we saw our snowshoer took the alternate down to Creede, leaving the divide for greener pastures below. We may never find out who he is. 

Later in the day a big storm blew in when we were on top of a pretty exposed ridge, so we had to huddle together behind a rock to keep warm and stay out of the wind and blowing snow. We weren't sure how long the storm would last so we got under Karma's tent and his Tyvek groundsheet to trap the heat inside our little cocoon. Luckily, after about 20 minutes the snow and wind subsided and we were able to resume our trek northward along the rocky spine.

As we continued, the sun popped out and we had a pretty scary climb to avoid the biggest cornice I've ever seen. It was very steep and I was breaking trail, careful to kick in every step. The snow was soft and I could feel it slide beneath my feet. Nearly at the top I went a bit too high and ended up on a slope even steeper than before. I kicked in a step and the snow let out underneath me and I started sliding down the slope. I stopped myself on some rocks after a couple feet and luckily Karma had waited for me or he would have been right in the slide path. I managed to get down and finish off the ascent, but I was drained from all the adrenaline which had been pumping through my veins. 

Karma led for most of the rest of the day as we descended to Piedra Pass. By the end of the 14-hour day, me and Karma decided it was the 'most legit snowshoeing' either of us had ever done. We made camp early because of the ridiculously slushy snow. We'd wake up at 3am the next morning, with the infamous Knife's Edge looming sixteen miles ahead. We couldn't really imagine a day much more exhausting than today.