Ventana backpack part 6

We woke up about 8AM on the second day (Saturday). The weather forecast before we left the previous day was just cloudy and some wind, but not cold and no precipitation.

So we packed up everything and stuck it behind a large boulder just off the trail, so we could take food and water in a daypack, and dayhike up to Cathedral Rock.

We left the campsite headed up the last half mile of Ventana Canyon at about 9:30PM after everything was stowed away out of sight.

By 10:30, we were up on the Ridge, and were taking pictures of Cathedral Rock and Ventana peak and Ventana rock from the ridge, just across the void between the ridge and those other places.

While we were taking pictures up on the ridge, the wind had picked up to about 30mph, and the temperature had dropped down to about 45F. Jason was very cold because he was wearing shorts(based on the prior weather forecast), and there was no way that he would be able to withstand that kind of exposure.

When we were taking pictures, a hiker stopped by and told us that the weather forecast from that morning was predicting 5 inches of snow above 4,000 feet, and more where we were.

There's no way we were going to be able to get down the mountain safely. Neither of us had microspikes or snow shoes, so we decided that we wouldn't be able to continue, because we couldn't hike down the mountain after the snow fell.

So, we were back at the campsite at about 12:30, and saddled up our backpacks, and headed back down the mountain. We got back down to the car by about 4PM, and back home at about 4:30PM.

So, the attempt on Cathedral Rock was unsuccessful, but we'll try again when possible.