The day started sort of okay. I still didn’t have much appetite, Robert’s knee was still stiff, but we got packed up and set off for Poia Lake by about 10 AM.

I was tired and miserable, probably a little altitude sickness was the main issue. It’s happened before, but since I was eating some and keeping it down I wasn’t too worried. When we got to the trail junction, there was a short discussion of going back up Ptarmigan or going to the ranger station, 5.3 miles north. I knew I would be okay, maybe a little cranky, so we decided to keep going.

We knew the day was going to be windy, with gusts up to 25 mph, but then we got to the tree line. It didn’t occur to us that in Red Gap Pass, the winds would be worse, but it became evident as we ascended above the tree line.

I started getting very nervous, have I mentioned that I’m not the best with heights? Well the trail went up a slope of rock where the wrong gust at the wrong time would send you down. There was a cute little pond down at the bottom of the side we went up, but we were too busy fighting the wind to keep our feet to take any pictures. Robert kept stumbling around, which didn’t help my nerves, and I kept crouching down or falling up the hillside and was slow to get up and moving again. I got really spooked when Robert seemingly almost fell backwards over me while I was crouching. I grabbed his leg thinking he was about to get blown over, but he was said he was probably okay and was worried about crushing me (I sort of made him sit on me).

A couple of backpackers headed for Poia Lake as well passed us going up. They had actual walking sticks which makes a big difference when bracing against serious wind gusts, as opposed to a couple branches that we appropriated to help us. I also fell on my stick breaking off about 6-8 inches of the bottom.

Near and at the top of the pass was the worst and I became in charge of morale, Robert had consoled me when I was freaking out and now he was worried. Wind gusts must have been 80-90 mph. Robert’s hat got blown up to the top of the pass as we were approaching and we both tried to go after it and quickly abandoned our attempts as the wind tried to blow us along over the edge it took the hat. I managed to sit down next to the cairn at the top of the pass and take a picture of each side before moving on, I just didn’t care all that much at that point, I wanted to get us down from the pass safely. 

Then I noticed Robert’s face, half of which was partially covered in blood. I was already freaked out having watched the wind try to blow him after his hat, and having pleaded with the wind to give us a short respite, my nerves were sufficiently frayed for my heart to skip a beat or two. At some point, Robert had gotten thrown into a rock, I remembered seeing his pack seeming to tumble along but when I saw that he was safely sitting I had figured he was okay. Fortunately everything was superficial, but we slid on our butts for a good 20-30 yards before we were in a spot where the wind died down enough that we wouldn’t get thrown off the mountain the second we got up.

We had to crouch down a few times and run between gusts of wind before the gusts were weak enough that we didn’t get blown over and we could just stand and brace. At least on this side of the pass we could hear the gusts coming with the sound of a train or a jet. When I could, I started holding onto Robert’s pack to try to make sure he didn’t get blown away.

Somehow we made it down and I tried to clean Robert’s face a little, but I’m not a good nurse, I’m to afraid of hurting someone further so I just cleaned some of the dried blood off. I at least got a bandage on his largest gash before we continued our six mile trek down to Poia Lake. It took far too long, but we made it (just in time to run out of water). The guys that had passed us and the party of three doing the same backpacking loop as us were wonderfully kind and helpful when we arrived at the campground. A bit of hot food and the assistance putting up our tent went a long way after such a terrible day.