I woke at 4:30 a.m. I was hiking at 5:30 a.m. The approach trail to Teewinot from Lupine Meadows trailhead was steep and not nearly as maintained as Garnet Canyon Trail. It was a grunt. It was dark and I had my headlamp on. It started raining. It stopped raining. It had not rained enough to turn me back. The sun soon shed enough light that I could turn my headlamp off. I hiked. I saw another climber ahead of me. I reached the top of the Apex. It started raining again. It did not stop. I caught up with the other climber. He was sitting on a rock in his rain jacket.
"This does not look like 84 and sunny." I said.
The man chuckled.
His name was Matt McGee. We hung out and discussed what a great idea it would be to turn back. Soaked fourth class slab with consequential exposure was an unnecessary risk. The mountain would be there another day. We hiked down talking about winter mountaineering and skiing. It stopped raining, but the damage had been done.
At the parking lot we traded contact info. I got in my truck and headed for Big Sky. It started raining again.
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