Solo Winter Storm Camping at Crystal Mountain
Hitched a ride to Crystal and went solo camping during a snowstorm
February 7: Get Ready for Gilbertson
January 19-25: Washington Ice Climbing with Dan
THIS ISSUE 👉 February 1-2: Solo Winter Storm Overnight at Crystal Mountain
February 4: Mt: Rainier: Longmire to Muir with Peter
February 8-9: Glacier Peak Ski Descent
February 1-2, 2025
February 1: Strava Link
February 2: Strava Link
A week remained before my big outing with Eric Gilbertson, and I hadn’t yet slept outside this year. Determined not to show up a noob, I made a snap decision to go camping. The winter storm and high avalanche danger in the forecast scared away potential partners, so I’d be solo.
During the week, I biked to my storage unit to retrieve my sleeping bag and stove and visited Wonderland Gear Exchange at least twice to buy miscellaneous items like fuel and a new sleeping pad.
By Friday, I’d managed to get everything ready besides transportation to the mountains. Fortunately, Rick sent a message in the Cowgill Trail Collective Slack offering a ride to Crystal for two people on Saturday. I jumped on it, and he was nice enough to be willing to pick me up at the boat. Then I asked Dan if he would drive me home Sunday because I knew he’d be skiing then. With transportation sorted, I had no excuses to abandon my plans.
I felt a substantial amount of anxiety despite living outside last winter in Canada. To feel better, I channeled the curiosity and courage of Outdoor Tom, a 12 year old YouTuber who recently completed his first solo overnight in Alaskan winter.
At 6 am Rick swooped me, and for the first time in over a year, I was reunited with the Lighthouse (Roasters) boys minus Aaron. “Lighthouse Boys” refers to a group of single PhDs and software engineers who lived in Fremont and carpooled to run club together. (Ironically, the Lighthouse boys have not yet had a night out on the town together…)
Rick, David, and I had plenty to catch up on during the car drive. I was especially excited to hear that David is building an app for athletes to creatively document their adventures. He’s been working 80 hours a week fueled by passion and has dreams for the app to become a competitor to Strava.
When we arrived at Crystal, I said bye to Rick and David and headed off into the backcountry. Anticipating high avalanche danger the night before, Dan helped me plan a route that avoided steep terrain. I traveled painfully slow to avoid sweating through my clothes with my heavy backpack. The air felt significantly warmer to me than the 24°F high forecasted for the day.
After crawling up BBQ Trees, I went down into Cement Basin and found a nice campsite. I made a platform, then pitched my tent and even dug a snow pit for fun. By the time I finished setting up camp, it was already 4. I quickly rushed back up the basin to enjoy a ski lap. I also figured I could mitigate some risk by putting in an up-track if the snow continued to accumulate through the night.
For dinner, I had a backpacking meal + ramen. I fell asleep reading around 7:30pm (my favorite part of winter camping). In the morning, I cooked oatmeal for breakfast and packed up camp. I could hear the snow pattering against the tent all night, so I expected increased avalanche danger. But as soon as I climbed back up to East Peak, I ran into a ton of people who came out to enjoy the new snow.
I skied down, stashed my camping gear by the exit trail, and enjoyed fun laps the rest of the day until meeting Dan and his son at the car.
Solo backcountry adventures have a special place in my heart. They offer the kind of solitude alone with myself to tune out social pressure and the internet dogpile of advice.
What impressed me most on this outing was how strange I felt going into the backcountry with no specific mission other than to spend the night and enjoy powder turns. After spending most of my waking minutes in Seattle thinking about how to build my career and start a family, I felt like a man locked alone in a toy store with no phone and no choice but to play with the toys.
It quickly became apparent that a weekend alone playing in the woods gave me no practical way to meet women or find jobs. You can argue, “That’s not true! You’re doing what you love, which makes you more attractive to women and employers!” But here’s the thing— I don’t want this adventure to signal anything to women or employers!! From prospective partners and employers, I expect them to work hard to be available, responsible, and to prioritize me, so I would rather signal to the world that I am responsive and available than that I disappear from time to time. Yeah solo winter camping is great but it has nothing to do with the foundation for an effective relationship as I see it.
I have spent the past year trying to justify my adventures by building a career around them. The thinking goes: “If my adventures make money, then I can justify going on them as a partner and parent.” But this thinking misses the point. Once I “have” to do adventures to support my family, I no longer “get” to do adventures. Furthermore, will I really want to leave a family at home to go on adventures when my whole career is built around them?
Probably not. I would rather enjoy adventures as a gift to myself for meeting the basic requirements and responsibilities in my life. On top of that, I would rather share my adventures and stories altruistically than sell them as a business. Deep down I’ve known this all along. What makes adventures so beautiful and special is that they’re completely ridiculous, irrational. They do not fit into modern functioning society any way you cut it. Why bother pretending that they do.
It’s hard to turn off adult brain. We go through life trying to be rational, doing important and good things. But from now on I’ll consider myself a fool if I don’t see my adventures as foolish, and I’ll love them all the more for it.
I hope you trademarked "the Internet dogpile of advice." That's a wonderful turn of phrase. Keep struggling, having fun, and staying safe. I love you!