The Nerdy Sheep's Crazy Adventures: A long slog in the deep deep snow. Abominable Audubon Attempt.

Mt. Audubon looms over the righthand side of Brainard Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, and this was our presumed destination. The four of us drove up to the Indian Peak Wilderness "winter" parking lot- the road to Brainard Lake is closed in the winter.

We started hiking around 8am, up the road towards the lake. The cool crisp air, thought normally pleasant, was blowing steadily, and increased with elevation.

Windswept highway.

By the time we made it to the trailhead the snow had gone from a few inches to nearly five feet deep, it didn't help that nobody had been up there that day and we broke trail the whole time.

The fellas.

The trouble with winter is that if a trail has not been marked for winter use, it is very difficult to find the trail, and often you are making your own trail. We wove in and out of the woods, sometimes over and under trees while Martie, true to form,

kept a sharp eye out for avalanche danger.

Deep snow!

Stomping through the snow.

Breaking trail, at times could be rather difficult-- attempting to climb up and over snow drifts, however the weather could not have been more lovely!

Audubon.

Talus field.

I'm not sure how I was able to get Martie to agree to climbing a steep snow covered Talus field, but it appeared to be the safest route, much better than the avalanche chutes littering the side of the ridge. I had to remove my snowshoes before leading up the steep slope, careful not to kick any rocks loose. It is mildly awkward when you think your foot is on a rock, and you put weight on it....then it breaks through to a 3 foot hole. Zig-zagging up the slope, the scenery became more breathtaking, and looking back at my cohorts was fun!

The view ahead!

The view below!

Once above the rock slope, we strapped on our snowshoes and decided to climb above treeline, the snow had a beautiful carved appearance and the wind was whipping at my face mask. With Goggles and face masks we all looked like underwater explorers or like we had gas masks on!

Once above treeline, the group decided to climb to the shoulder slightly above treeline as our "summit" for the day. We removed our snowshoes and placed large rocks on them so they wouldn't blow away, you know the wind is strong when metal snowshoes might blow away. The wind was so strong, I was nearly blown over, a few times I had to brace myself against the wind. My vision was obscured by the crystalized snow enveloping around my body, the sound was deafening, I was unable to hear my three cohorts! Here are two short videos one of my party members took. In the first video, I am bracing myself against the wind

There were times when I lost sight of the person twenty feet away, they would just vanish into a sea of snow.

To the left.

To the right.

Mt. Audubon was so close, yet very far away, we had another 1.6 miles to hike in order to reach the summit, and another 1700 ft. of elevation gain and there was a storm, or something blowing in from over the peaks.

Me, Struggling against the wind.

We only sat at our summit for a few moments before we headed back down the peak to our snowshoes, and found an easier route down to the basin.

Last view of Audubon before we descended.

Most of the climb down was very uneventful, however we were crossing over Avalanche chutes, and it had to be done at a time...just in case one of us was buried. There were thousands of small snowballs knocked loose by my snowshoes, plummeting towards the trees below. I kept imagining the snow fracturing right below my snowshoes and dragging me down into a crashing wave of snow, however there wasn't a high risk of avalanche.

Back to civilization.

We arrived at the lake near sunset, and I looked west to see an unusual fiery glow from behind the snow shrouded peaks.

Once beyond the lake, we headed back to the car, arriving around 5:00pm. We were out there all day, and only hiked 9.8 Miles, with a 2,000 ft elevation gain.