We were very happy to wake up to much the same weather as the evening before. It looked like it would rain or snow at any moment, but it hadn't started, so we were happy. We packed up, said our goodbyes to our favorite camp and set off on the nasty trip around the lake.
We took another break for pictures at the south end of the lake and then jammed over to Carter Lake. At one point we were going to climb up to Phillips ridge from the north side of Carter, but the conditions didn't look good, and again, we took the nasty route we KNEW against the unknown - and the unknown had kicked our butts before so it was an easy decision.
The route through the forest from the South side of Carter lake up to Phillips Ridge was as nasty as we remembered it, but clearly much better marked than any previous year. There was a huge difference from 2002 to 2006 in the ease in following the route through the forest.
Once we got on Phillips Ridge it got cold and windy. Roger and Mark were getting cold and didn't have more to wear so they were getting worried about exposure. I was OK temperature wise, but I was really TIRED. I'm 9 years older than the other guys, and wasn't in top shape when we started due to a nasty virus that took me out for most of the spring. Phillips Ridge has some dangerous sections and navigation in a cloud can be difficult so I focused on staying alert over speed.
Needless to say, we didn't stop much as we wanted to get off the high part of the Ridge before really nasty conditions hit. Roger and I had a nasty night on Phillips Ridge in 2005 and knew how dangerous it can be when the weather turns for the worse.
Thus, we just dragged ourselves along the Ridge with very few rests hoping that the weather wouldn't get worse and hoping that our destination camp would be open. We almost took a wrong ridge after flat top mountain, but noticed the mistake and corrected it without having to climb UPHILL at all.
By the time we his our camp, Mark and my boots were soaking wet and all three of us were bone weary. I think we spent almost 10 hours hiking that day, with minimal rests.
We set up camp, got a fire going first priority to dry off and warm up. We set up camp, had a cup of soup, dried our boots and tried to dry out and warm up the best we could. Finally we just got into our sleeping bags and chatted a bit until sleep overcame us. That night we got some light rain and expected to be walking out in the rain the following day.
Walking in the rain isn't fun, but we knew the worst was behind us, and we had mostly downhill on an easy to follow route.
