My version of events now
Yup, exactly the same as the other guys.
Excuse the pics. My phone's crap, and I dont really compliment it too well. We got there about 10am to a beautiful stillness in the skies and breathtaking views. And that is one imposing viaduct.
Was a truly stunning area, but knowing Gray's advice that "when it's bleak, it's f***ing bleak," I decided to have my shelter up as soon as possible. Now with the idea of the competition for that lovely knife, I'd spent bloody ages thinking of what setup to have. Lo and behold, and soon as I got there, all those ideas went clean out of my head. For some reason that eludes me, I figured camping on a slope, with my head at the bottom, to be a great idea! That said, I did flatten it down as much as possible and pulled to tap up over it, forming a snow wall and battening down the corners with heaps of snow that were sure to stay there all night... :/
I made few mods after a cuppa, such as making a space for my pack, and pegging down the ground sheet. By this time, the sheet was beginning to act like a pond liner, collecting all the snow I'd knocked down into it during construction. But never fear, my Alpkit Hunka XL (No affiliation! Especially after they figured that only a drawstring was going to grace the bag! How difficult is it to put a ruddy zip on the things?!) shunned such prospects of moisture and held my mini-lake at bay throughout the night. My amazing accidental construction plans had placed my gear on a higher elevation than my bag, so that all stayed dry.
After a few hours there, the wind started to pick up, and it was then that I figured some better protection was needed for my shelter. With Andy's suggestions and help, which up to this point I'd been shunning in favour of my own sense of self-ability, I hooked up an A frame tripod, with a log at the back to keep the back end of the tripod stuck in tight. Without the frame, there is no doubt my shelter would have upped and left for greener patures. I do believe the wind was strong enough that night to have taken it that far! I didn't grab any pics of my final shelter, but Andy did, so you can see the change.
The wind picked up after that, and the rain followed soon after, belting us without any mercy. Our fire turned into a blast furnace and lasted up until bedtime, by which point we had retreated inside the godsend of Gray's pop-up shelter with only each other and Andy's Wood/Gas burner as company. At this point I got really cold. My wet jacket and feet really hit me and with a hot pink hot water bottle in hand, I climbed into my bag. With about an inch clearance above me, I had all the grace of an inebriated elephant, but I did it!
Throughout the knight the wind kept waking me, and after discovering that on a slope the human body tends to move downwards, i resorted to curling into a fetal position to keep the rain from the few small inches of my face poking out my bivi. I was never once cold, and any chill I might have felt was masked by the awesomeness of my wool blanket, which in my opinion is always worth the effort to bring now!
Come morning, I was woken at 8 by a gunshot as my tent peg for one of the shelter's front size fired off into the rain. Suddenly, the A-frame came to the rescue once more, and I quickly tied that side down to the deeply entrenched legs and decided it was time to get up. It's at this point that I have to say, that as funny as it was, Kit (Copperhead) is a proper trooper. Anyone who could still be cracking a smile after the impromptu cold water swimming lesson he had is a ruddy hero to me.
The entire landscape had changed. I've never seen such thawing.
After shaking Gray from his slumber, and then coaxing him out the warm confines of a bag i swear he could have spent all day in, we packed up and were off, somehow still smiling.
I had an awesome time. After only getting out 4 times before, this was by far the most extreme conditions I've camped it. Truly a great lesson, with great people. As for my shelter, I'm really quite impressed by it. When morning came, my clothes were dry,and despite the wind picking up, it kept in place until all my gear was safely stowed in Andy's pickup. The little snow wall I'd made probably did nothing against the wind and rain, but it stop my body sliding out into the rain
Cheers again fellas!
