Since the trip to Davis last weekend was so enjoyable I thought to do another climb on the next weekend. Birch and The Thumb seemed jsut right for a weekend trip. But this time it was quite a different adventure!

As usual, I left L.A. on a Friday afternoon and drove to the Birch Lake trailhead to sleep in my VW bus.

On Sat morning, 10/24, I was up before sunrise to hike up the trail to Birch Lake. There were clouds in the east and when the sun rose the sky turned bloody-red. Not a good omen in the Sierras.

A few hours later I set up camp at Birch Lake. The sky was cloudy but nothing to worry, I thought. I left a little gap in my Bibler tent door open for ventilation. Then I took off for a day hike of The Thumb. It is a standard cl2-3 hike. There is only one interest climbing section, a chute leading to the sloping plateau on the southest face of the Thumb.

As I worked my way to the summit the weather deteriorated. A fast-moving front had arrived. It got dark, cold, started to rain, then to snow. I was too close to the summit to turn around. So I rushed up to sign in. Forget about summit pictures and relaxing on the peak. I hiked down asap as the storm came in with a vengence.

It snowed like in a real winter storm. Soon the rocks were covered with snow. The nasty part was an ice layer on the rocks under the snow. Boulder hopping was over. The pace downhill was slower than up. Every step could lead to a potential fall due to ice under snow. After many hours descending in this freak snow storm I was finally back at Birch Lake unscathed. I could not believe the change from the morning: It was a real winter landscape. Ice formed on the lake. The tent was covered with snow. Worst of all, the sleeping bag was also covered with snow which entered threw the small gap in the tent door.

After cleaning up the mess, I crawled into the tent to change the wet clothes and warm up. It had become like a real SMS winter trip. I spent the next 12 hours inside as the storm moved through.

On Sunday morning, it appeared to be all over. But soon the low clouds were descending again on Birch Mtn which I wanted to climb in the morning. The early red sky was a reminder of the day before. I decide not to make the same mistake again and left Birch for another day or year. I packed up, hiked out and was satisfied with one peak, having made it out safely in wild mountain weather.

Later I learned that this storm surprised many hikers. Susan Livingston was caught on Olancha, got off trail and needed helicopter evacuation. Many others had a few stories to tell. Guess the climbing season finally ended.