A week later...
"Don't you want to try hiking in winter? It's so beautiful! You can have my friend's equipment and we'll do an easy one!"
"Yes! When?!"
So, we went hiking yesterday and my cousin came as well. Wright peak is supposedly intermediate and it should've taken us 5 hours. It's a short little hike with nice views. However, it took us nearly 5 hours just to go up, and my mom didn't even make it. The whole hike ended up taking us 7 hours.
The temperature was cold, but bearable. It was around -16°C at the base, and probably near -30°C at the top. It was packed near the top; it would've been easier to switch out of crampons into snowshoes, but it was so cold that we chose to continue without switching. Above treeline conditions deteriorated quickly as we approached the summit. "Can we go back? Let's just say that we got to the top? I can't walk anymore..." my mom said as soon as we got above treeline. "Can you go behind that rock and wait there then?" I told her, as me and my cousin carried on.
The top was windy, visibility was poor and we couldn't see anything. Wright peak is actually surrounded by mountains that form a corridor that traps the wind, so it is often hit hard. It is only the 16th highest mountain of the Adirondacks, but number 1 for wind factor. My eyelashes and some hair that was sticking out of my balaclava were coated with ice. In my head, I was thinking, we can't take too long because my mom will get cold fast behind that rock, and we couldn't even see her anymore....but after reaching every "fake" summit, we realized that the real summit is further up.
After a while, I saw my cousin that was ahead of me with a thumbs up. Yup, we finally reached the top. Unfortunately, there was nothing to see due to poor weather condition.
On the descent, my mom wanted to snap more photos to tell her friends how cool she is, haha. The hike was pretty hard for her. "I can't walk anymore!" she said several times, and she actually had 2 cramps. "Do you want to spend the night here then?" I asked.
I knew we would have to hike out in the dark, but it wasn't too bad. I love those slides on the descent.
Winter conditions are sometimes unforgivable, your margin of error is much smaller, you get cold when you walk too slow, you're tired and you ache all over...but a week later, you think it wasn't that bad and you do it again!