Date: 2016-06-08
From: franconia notch (stealth camping) 

To: garfield shelter 
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: clear sky

We woke up this morning at the base of a big climb, but we were excited to get up and see the sights of Franconia ridge. It was pretty cold at the base of the mountain, but we figured it would warm up as the day went on. Also, we had heard there was only a 20% chance of rain today ! As we kept going it got colder, cold enough to put gloves on, But we still met a group of four people so it didn't seem to be too weird to hike in that weather and that was one of the reason why we didn't turn at least that's something I keep telling myself to not feel too dumb. We got above treeline and were met with strong winds ( approximately 80 mph with gusts of 100 mph). Visibility was maybe 20 feet, which made it hard to see the trail at points. To make matters worse we were being pelted by ice at hight speeds, it hurt really bad. I am not sure why we decided to keep going. Hindsight we should have turned around right there and waited for a better day to cross. When we finally arrived on Mount Lincoln we got into a safe spot and looked on the map to find out that it would be above treeline until we're done with Mount Lafayette and hike .3 miles down. So still a good bit to go and I started to get really cold. We started to hike as fast as we possibly could and as always Eli would keep getting ahead and stop every now and then. He waited on me on mt Lafayette again and instead of going down to the Hut 1.1 off the Trail we kept on going. at this time I started having problems with my sight and in general my coordination. while Eli went ahead again I fell several times (rainjacket has a small hole now). luckily i always fell in spots where it didn't had any consequences except for one 2 foot drop. i slipped in this normally technichal part. the next thing I remember is that I somehow land on my two feet. When we finally hit the treeline eli waited there and had his Backpack taken off. I just walked straight to him and said: I want to be home. At this point it was the only thought I had. get off this mountain and get home. Elis Equipment on the other Hand was still dry thanks to the dry sacks so we took the only option we had and cuddled up in one sleeping bag. if was a little tight but the only thing that actually could warm us up. After 1 hour Zach and Courtney showed up and luckily they were both fine. they had lost both pack covers and the map(except for zach's we got everything back later on(Trail provides)) Courtney couldn't feel the tips of her fingers anymore and everybody was cold but their stuff was still dry so we had that one going for us which was nice. So we cuddled up in the sleeping bags and just tried to warm up again. since it was relatively uncomfortable with 2 persons in one sleeping bag I tried to get out of it once to see if mine dried but there was no hope for that and I remember it as one of the coldest moments in my life. Zach came up big that day by getting the water(0.2 downhill doesn't sound like a long distance but trust me in our situation it was)cooking for Courtney eli and himself and basically doing everything outside of the sleeping bags because he was the only one with a dry daunjacket. This day taught me a lot and i'm thankful for the experience and even the day afterwards we started to answer the question if we would go up there again with yes just better prepared. 2 out of the 4 people we met up there that day had to get rescued. This is definitely my last post so one last time thank you very much for the support and I hope you enjoy the last few posts of Eli and Zach.David aka DAS MACHINE