2mo ago

"Big Four" Ice Caves

4 comments

Oh man, love the ice caves. Went there a few Decembers back, it was the dumbest thing I've ever done outdoors but also my most memorable hike. We made it out way later than planned and didn't even get there until it was dark. It's a 2 mile hike up the closed road to the trailhead and another 2 miles to the cave. We also went when the bridge was out, so we crossed through the river/creek and it was way fucking deeper than expected. We duct taped our boots to our snow pants thinking it would help; it obviously didn’t. Our boots got completely soused with cold water, and my gf at the time completely fell down under the freezing water. We were stubborn and stupid and we kept going, it was another few hours before we made it back. It’s a half-miracle that we didn’t get hypothermia or frostbite, and the only reason we didn’t is because I recognized the danger and forced us to stop three times in order to rub dry our feet and wring out our boots and get our body temp back up, and I luckily had six extra pairs of socks along. They all got soaked again as soon as they went in our boots. The cave was surrounded by a snow field when we went, and was opened up due to the season and we were able to go all the way back into it. Stupid, stupid, decision to keep going after getting so wet, but we made it and it’s still my most memorable hike I’ve ever had.
- Jesus Christ dude! You’re insane
  
  Yeah, I know. Should never have happened. My then-gf had tried to get us there like 3-4 times before that earlier in the season, and she was losing her shit trying to get us out there. I tried to stop her when we got to the creek but she said she was going forward with or without me and made it happen. We argued for like 30 minutes after crossing the water while we were soaking wet, and she demanded that she was going to go on no matter what. She’s stubborn as fuck. I grew up in Wisconsin and survived multiple power outages for days at a time at negative 20-30 degrees, and she's from Washington and had no idea how much danger we were in. Had to go with her when she wouldn’t go back because she definitely would have gone ahead on her own out of stubbornness, and she wouldn’t have been safe and I couldn’t just leave her. Lesson here is, don’t let someone talk louder than you and put everyone’s life in danger. It was a stupid, stupid decision we were lucky to get out of ok.

Some extra information about this photo:
This is a picture of the ice caves on the “Big Four” mountain in Washington State, as the year progresses, this icy slope (glacier?) slowly melts away, making large “caves” of ice. Eventually, once the whole thing melts, a large “4” appears on the side of the mountain. And then the whole cycle repeats as winter starts and replenishes the ice.