What's Snow Blindness?

Welcome everyone on Steemit! I never knew snow blindness existed, living in Southern California, until my great friend @derekrichardson and I took a trip to the High Sierras and ended up in a nice snowstorm and subsequently a gorgeous clear day. But that's jumping ahead of myself, we started on a clear blue day and drove up to and out of Bishop reaching the Lake Sabrina trail head. It usually takes me time at the trail head, I need to mount everything not attached to my external frame backpack. Once strapped up we were off for our packing adventure.

Derek had everything planned out and I was just taking in the scenery at that point.

It was right about the time we reached Blue Lake that the weather got sour.

There was a group of hikers that congregated at the lake, dressed warmer than myself. I could tell they were bewildered by the fact we pushed on as the light snow dropped.

Now I want to stress that before we left the car, Derek offered up a trash bag for me to cover my pack encase the weather went bad during the hike. He explained that there is nothing worse than reaching your camping spot, only to have your sleeping bag soaked. Well I respectfully declined with a chuckle as the weather at the car was shining bright. I stood corrected at this point and the longer we trudged on, the more soaked I got. I was irritated to say the least.

We took the trail from Blue Lake up to the Emerald Lakes area and on to Topsy Turvy. I didn't get many pictures of the hike in as I was soaked and just wanted to get changed.

While on the trail, right near where it split to head up to Pee Wee Lake and Topsy Turvy, Derek lead the way right past the split and we continued to hike on for about a mile before Derek realized the error and needed to hike back. At this point I was just happy to have been close to setting up camp. We decided on a spot right between Topsy Turvy Lake and Pee Wee Lake. Snow was already on the ground in spots but nothing where we set up the tents.

In my typical fashion (my nickname is Grandma Larry) I set up my tent and sleeping bag and passed out for an hour or two. Wouldn't you know it.....the weather during the time I was asleep actually lightened up and was sunny and nice. Of course I would miss the best part of the day because when I woke up the weather was not looking so great and was cloudy again. Derek was amused by my absence during the nice day. He had been up checking out the area and fishing. Once awake, we set out to explore around us before dark. Although Pee Wee Lake was liquid, most of Topsy Turvy was frozen over.

After exploring the area we came back to camp and hung out for the night. Derek and I started in on the Vodka and had a genius idea to walk the ten or so yards to Topsy Turvy and try and skip rocks on the ice. It went from skipping rocks to just throwing them in, because it didn't seem they would penetrate the ice. Derek and I could not tell and the rocks got larger and larger and we tried to hurl them further to really gauge how thick the ice was in different spots. It seemed the ice was thicker in the center of the lake, with the shores more liquid. This was when Derek decided to use his walking stick to poke at the shore ice and pretty much almost totally falls in, getting wet on one leg almost up to his waist. I couldn't stop laughing because those were his only pants and I saw it coming a mile away. GOOD TIMES!

Well this was all before dark because once the light went out the snow started to fall. Derek decided to cook dinner with the fresh powder barely falling but I went into the tent and hung out, staring out the window to talk. Before long he did the same and we were having full conversations from inside our tents. I ended up falling asleep mid conversation and only woke up when my tent was sagging in my face. Yes....the snow had picked up and created a snow drift on one side of the tent. I yelled to Derek and he proceeded to tell me I would need to smack the walls of my tent and shove the snow away every few hours or it would build up and collapse the tent. Oh man I was not getting any sleep, this was my first snow storm and it was dumping. Eventually we made it through the night and both of us were up early, before the sun had crested on the valley. It was a winter wonderland to say the least.

The snow had dumped roughly 6 inches and covered everything around us.

Photo by @derekrichardson

The clouds cleared and the sun started to take hold. It looked like the snow storm was no more and it was shaping up to be a really nice day.

When I say nice, I mean the sun came out strong and started beaming good.

Photo by @derekrichardson

It was extremely bright and I actually had to strip a few layers, as the UV off the sun was heating me up.

After milling around a bit at camp we decided to set off on our hike and visit a few of the surrounding lakes. Luckily, Derek brought an extra pair of Gators and Cramp Ons. Gators are water resistant leg protectors to keep snow out of your boots, and Cramp Ons are small metal spikes that attach to your shoes. We were all set to hike, and I let Derek lead the way with his walking stick and stepped in the tracks he made.

As we hiked out from Topsy Turvy we noticed other tracks in the snow

It was pretty fun trekking around in the snow. My biggest mistake was not bringing sunglasses on this trip. Derek almost plunged into a few holes but we carefully made our way up to Hungry Packer Lake. Hungry Packer Lake was a huge lake that was frozen over but had a small outflow.

We decided to hang out a bit and have a bite to eat while grabbing a few photos. Derek was nice enough to snap one of the best pictures of me ever taken.

But while snapping the photo of me, something amazing happened....rumbling and what could only be described as a snapping crack sound echoed throughout the valley. The sun had set off an avalanche on the peak at the far end of the lake, sending a TON of snow down the mountain to the lake below. I was lucky enough to have caught the ending of it on video.

Derek and I were blown away at what had just happened. With excitement running through our veins Derek snapped another photo of me (notice the clean peak in the background as opposed to the first snapshot?) and we headed out back down and around toward Moonlight Lake.

On the way to Moonlight we passed by a smaller lake known as Sailor Lake.

We hiked further through the snow and the large Moonlight Lake began to come into view.

We decided that we had hiked pretty far and took a seat next to the lake to grab other bite to eat and take a rest. Moonlight was also completely frozen over.

After our rest we mustered up the energy to hike back to camp. It was an early night after dinner as we were both pretty exhausted and had to hike back out to the car the next day. That night it didnt snow but rained pretty good. It was at this point in time Derek informed me about weather proofing a tent. Weather proofing a tent you say?? YES! I was under the assumption tents could take the elements but I was sorely mistaken and learned the hard way this night. The bottom seams of my tent began to leak water inside and over night I was using my dirty laundry to soak up the water and keep my sleeping bag dry. The next morning we took a few hours to let our boots dry in the sun before hiking out in them. I woke up COMPLETELY BLIND!

My eyes watered to no end feeling gritty like sandpaper but no sand was in them. Derek informed me I had experienced snow blindness and that it was going to be a rough day for me hiking out with the bright sun. I used my camera to be my eyes on the way back down and got the pictures of everything I had missed on the way up. After our boots seemed somewhat dry we packed up and headed down to the trail. This time we hiked the outflow from Pee Wee Lake, down a waterfall.

The weather hiking out was much nicer than on the way in and made for some great photos. The snow was melting all around us. We passed by Dingleberry Lake and Emerald Lakes.

I got a few shots looking back at the snowy peaks were we had just stayed the night before.

When we reached Blue Lake I knew we were almost home.

And soon Sabrina Lake was in view. At this point we started hiking faster, already tasting that cold beer that was left waiting for us after the hike.

I created a video of the entire trip. It contains a higher quality version of the avalanche. Music in the video is The Mamas and the Papas: California Dreamin.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long hiking post and I hope everyone gets a chance to visit the beautiful Sierra Nevadas.

All photos, unless otherwise stated or sourced, were taken by @csusbgeochem1. Animations and cover photo created by @csusbgeochem1 using GIMP.

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travelfeed (73) · 7 years ago

Good read! We just gave you a small upvote together with over 50 followers of the @travelfeed curation trail.
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csusbgeochem1 (57) · 7 years ago

Thank you for the upvote and thank you as well for letting me know about #travelfeed. I will remember to use the tag on my next travel post!

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doverland (46) · 7 years ago

Nice trip! Here I thought it was only me that got caught in snowstorms with Derek backpacking. I thought it was my snow luck and now I think it’s all on Derek.

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2 votes

This was an experience in how crazy the weather can be throughout the day in the Sierra Nevadas. Oh yeah its Derek's luck, I now always take him up on a trash bag to cover my pack.

steemitworldmap (75) · 7 years ago

Hiya, just swinging by to let you know that this post made the Honorable mentions list in today's TravelDigest #181

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Thank you very much!

paddlingnature (47) · 7 years ago

That was quite the video! I would hate to be caught under that! Thanks!

Thanks! I was thinking the same thing when it went off. Any animal in that area would have gotten buried.

mrday (52) · 7 years ago

Oooo my goddddd, so beautiful mountain with the snow, big party over there buddy, l love that one

My jaw dropped when I unzipped the tent that morning. Crazy beautiful. It was a great time all around.

derekrichardson (67) · 7 years ago

That was such a fun trip! Makes me want to head out for an adventure in the Sierras right now!

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Sierra Nevada Trails: From Sabrina To Moonlight Lake - Witnessing My First Avalanche

What's Snow Blindness?