Total Trail Miles: 175.4

Ascent/Descent: 3446/1221 ft

Start Time: 05:09

End Time: 13:40

Temperature: 6°C (43) 

We didn't get much sleep cowboy camping with 60mph gusts blowing sand in our faces but our alarms went off at 4:45 so in the cold dark and wind we packed up, got our head torches on and set off. It wasn't long before we had too delayer a bit as we started walking in everything we had worn to bed which was pretty much all the clothes we had. We had a steep ascent up to Apache peak with lots of blown down trees to navigate and prickly bushes to push through. We got up to the top at 6:30 and decided we would give it all a go. We proceeded slowly putting our spikes for all the snowy passages that were steep and sketchy, just focusing on placing one foot in front of each other and not looking down. We made slow and steady progress, and had to navigate even more blow downs which was much harder in spikes and snow but we were rewarded with beautiful views and brief periods of clear paths with no snow where we could take a breather and break. We could feel the altitude and needed lots of snacks to keep us going. It was lots of fun though and felt like a true adventure. We were just aiming for the campsite 

at 175.4 where far out said there was no snow, we were very glad to arrive at 13:40, exhausted from the challenging day. We set up camp, ate lots of food and lazed around for the afternoon taking in the incredible views and chatting with Scottish Ronan? and a German couple that were also camped there. I was in bed by 18:30 completely shattered