Cold Snowy Climb-Evans

Laura, Brent and I drove up to Summit lake and started our ascent to the summit from there. When we got up to lake level, the thermometer in our Chevy Blazer read 43 degrees. We had already experienced a short snow shower along the road up to the lake. It was also quite windy, so we had to dress warmly. So at around 2PM we set off on our hike to Mount Evans.

The first half of the hike was uneventful, but then we noticed some dark clouds rolling in. Within a couple minutes it started to snow really hard, and the wind began to pick up. For about 10 minutes it snowed so hard that we could no longer see Summit lake. Then suddenly it was over and the sun was out again. It took us about an hour and a half to summit. When we arrived at the top, we saw that there were about a dozen cars in the parking lot. The thermometer in the summit shelter read 32 degrees, and there was a good steady 40 mph wind. I'm guessing the wind chill was somewhere in the single digits. It was funny watching the tourists getting out of their cars with shorts and tee shirts on. They typically lasted about 20 seconds before they rushed back to the warmth of their vehicle.

For Brent and I, this was our 9th 14er and Laura's first. This was a good warm up for the 6 other 14ers we were planning on climbing over the next 4 days.

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