After staying overnight at the Idyllwild Inn they provided me a ride to the Devil’s Slide trailhead at 8:30 AM. Then it was up up up. Here is a picture of the Devil’s Slide.
After climbing for I while I could look down on it.
There was one other thing: the weather report said WINTER STORM ADVISORY and HIGH WINDS ADVISORY for that evening. So I wanted to get up and to a relatively safe spot at Fuller Ridge. Well I arrived at 4 PM and hunkered down with my tent. Next the wind started to blow, then it started to snow heavily. I felt fine. I was warm, I had shelter, food and water. As it snowed I would tap the tent to have it slide off, but I didn’t realize that it was building up on all the edges. At 2:15 AM I heard a loud pop, and a 8 inch hole was in my tent. Nothing could seal it – not even duct tape. So for an hour or more I held a plastic bag over it with my hand from the inside while I nodded off and on. Finally the snowing stopped so I tried to sleep a little. At dawn it was still awful out. Finally some sun appeared and I decided to pack up and hike on at 11:30 AM. Luckily two other hikers had found the snow covered trail and I followed their tracks down to lower elevation where there was no snow.
OMG, it’s April, I cannot believe it snowed on you. Glad you at least were prepared, I would have totally freaked if it started snowing unexpectedly. So what caused the hole to appear?
Snow load around the edges caused extreme tension on the tent and caused it to rip. Luckily today another hiker had repair tape so hole is all fixed. Whew!
I have some quilting clips that might work if this happens in the future. Glad you got it repaired. Love, Starr
Did you build a snowman? I haven’t found a picture of it.
Just when all of your snow gear arrived in Austin! Glad you were warm and sorry about the rip! You need a quilter or two! Should we send needle and thread with the next box? Safe travels!!