{"id":12250,"date":"2021-02-14T21:51:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T04:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=12250"},"modified":"2022-10-20T10:18:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T16:18:30","slug":"frosty-ridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=12250","title":{"rendered":"Frosty Ridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The forecast called for up to 4 inches of snow, beginning in early morning, so I was looking forward to today’s hike. But 4 inches in town, at 6,000′, could translate to a foot in the mountains. So I’d decided to try one of my favorite hikes, over in Arizona, which starts over a thousand feet lower and climbs to a little below 9,000′. I didn’t know if I’d make it to the top, but I’d try.<\/p>\n

However, I wasn’t thinking about the long drive over there. When I got up in the morning there was an inch of snow in town. By the time I was ready to go, it was snowing again. The Sidekick has the best all-terrain tires you can get, and I shifted it into 4 wheel drive. As I drove south out of town, rising toward the Continental Divide, more and more snow was coating the highway.<\/p>\n

I’d never tried the Sidekick on a snowy road before. My 2wd truck would’ve just slid off into a ditch immediately, so I was quite apprehensive. There was nobody else on the road.<\/p>\n

The Sidekick did fine, and I figured the snow would end where the highway drops out of the mountains into the basin, below 5,500′. But it didn’t \u2013 it turned into a blizzard there. Snow was piling up in Lordsburg, below 4,500′. Crazy!<\/p>\n

If Lordsburg had inches of snow, I wasn’t even sure I could get to the trailhead over in the Pinalenos. Maybe I should skip that climb, head south to the Chiricahuas instead, and do a low-elevation loop. I wouldn’t get much of a workout, but it’d be better than nothing.<\/p>\n

But I finally emerged from the snow, crossing the playa on I-10, and saw blue sky ahead. I decided to keep going. And it turned out that the storm hadn’t dumped as much in Arizona as it was dumping in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/a>
An inch of snow when I got up in the morning <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Snowing <\/a>
Snowing when I left home <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The highway south <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Approaching <\/a>
Approaching my destination <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Greasewood <\/a>
Greasewood Mountains with a little snow on top <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The forecast had called for more snow throughout the day, so I dressed warm before heading up the trail. It’s really hard to change socks or pull on long johns when you’re already standing in snow.<\/p>\n

It was windy, and clouds kept breaking up the sunlight, so I kept going from warm to cold while climbing. I couldn’t see much snow on the slope ahead, but I could see frost on the pines and firs up on the ridge. It can get really cold up there.<\/p>\n

I hit snow on the trail at about the halfway point.<\/p>\n

\"View <\/a>
View south from the foothills <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Blooming <\/a>
Blooming juniper, my nemesis <\/div> <\/div>
\"Covered <\/a>
Covered with toxic pollen <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A saddle about halfway up <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Pines <\/a>
Pines and firs frosted on the ridgeline <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6265\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Fortunately the morning wind didn’t follow me onto the ridge top. The snow depth varied from 3 inches to a foot in steep, shady spots. It was beautiful fresh powder, and there was a little more coming down, despite the blue skies overhead. I was moving pretty well, but I didn’t have much time left by the time I got up there. I had to stop and turn back a half mile from the end, in order to get home at a reasonable hour. I was okay with that because the snow was getting deeper!<\/p>\n

\"Snow <\/a>
Snow spider <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A level spot on the ridge <\/div> <\/div>
\"Getting <\/a>
Getting deeper <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6275\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6276\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6286\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6290\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This could well be one of the endangered red squirrels <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Snow on the upper trail made the descent much easier \u2013 I just sort of skipped down until I ran out of snow.<\/p>\n

I really had to fight a crosswind to stay on the Interstate. It was dark by the time I reached Lordsburg. All the snow had melted, but there was a gale-force wind with brutal wind chill when I got out to pump gas.<\/p>\n

The highway home was also snow-free until it rose into the low Burro mountains. There, I immediately hit ice and the vehicle started to fishtail. I was able to pull over and switch into 4wd, but still had only marginal grip. I switched on the emergency flasher and proceeded at about 35 mph. Within a few minutes a car came up behind me and tailgated me dangerously close for another 5 minutes until finally passing. It was a cheap little Japanese car, and it immediately speeded out of sight in the icy snow.<\/p>\n

I expected to find it in a ditch ahead, but somehow the driver made it. And I found that I could actually drive faster now I was in 4wd. Still, it took me about twice as long as usual to get through the mountains. A long, exciting day!<\/p>\n

\"On <\/a>
On the way down <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6300\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_6301\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6311Pano\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The forecast called for up to 4 inches of snow, beginning in early morning, so I was looking forward to today’s hike. But 4 inches in town, at 6,000′, could translate to a foot in the mountains. So I’d decided to try one of my favorite hikes, over in Arizona, which starts over a thousand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,49,72,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear","category-hikes","category-pinalenos","category-southeast-arizona"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/IMG_6286.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12250"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12278,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12250\/revisions\/12278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}