Snow!! It fell in the night to create a winter wonderland.
I was up in the dark, at 6 am, made a coffee, and returned to the considerable warmth of my sleeping bag. I hadn’t planned on moving on today, and the weather, sleet early on, gave a decent excuse. The wind was gusty in the rain near horizontal.
By 8 am it was back to snow coming down, so breakfast was consumed in bed.
I had a book that if read during the day could lighten my load a little, tomorrow.
To be honest it was way too miserable to be outside. Of course, I went out on occasion, to find wood in the woodshed, for ablutions, water from the rainwater tank, etc, but the wind was gnarly and the windchill with the rain was not something to be experienced for long.
I was lucky yesterday to be well wrapped, and today the same. It didn’t take long to make use of my Japanese folding handsaw and hack up some of the lengths of wood that others had been unable to fit into the firebox. The hut warmed up, and all my clothes dried out.
Around 3 pm the rain stopped, and by that time most of the snow around the hut had either melted or been washed away. The clouds parted and I could see snow coating the higher hills.
I wandered up to the stream early on and it wasn’t up much, then around 4 pm and it was still easily crossible, at least this high up in the catchment. I guessed it would get higher further down.
Fingers crossed for the eight river crossings tomorrow.
My mission was to get to Palmer Hut, 26 km away, so an early start was going to be essential.
A guide to the night’s accommodation: Warden Hut
