Castle Peak trip goes afoul

One of the most important things to remember about mountaineering is that reaching the summit is never a guarantee.  When variable factors come in to play, like the human element, weather and snow conditions, each constantly changing, luck must be on your side.  I've been turned around from numerous 14er's now, including the Wilsons, Quandary, Handies, and now Castle and Conundrum.

In this case I only got as far as the Trail head.  May 23 was a rainy and cold day in the Elk Mountains and I hardly felt invigorated as I started this trip.  Optimistic that the weather would clear, as predicted, I proceeded, anyways, and drove down Castle Creek Road to the road for Pearl Pass and set up my tent during a break from the drizzle.  I ate dinner, and following my usual routine, I set the alarm for 3am and go to sleep.  The pit-patter of rain on my tent serenaded me to sleep.

The cell phone alarm somehow failed to work, but I instinctively wake up at 3am to dead silence.  "Oh yes!" I thought.  "The rain has stopped!"  Sure enough it had, but the story doesn't end there.  I slowly rose to a seated position and my head contacts the roof of the tent which feels extremely heavy.  "Oh no!  There's snow on my tent."  I started beating the sides of the tent and the snow slid off in large, soggy clumps.  I felt around for my headlamp, turned it on and unzip the tent to peer around.  Sure enough, the headlamp lit up a keleidescope of snowflakes pummeling down.  Already, six inches were on the ground. 

Remembering how poorly my Honda Civic performs in snow, especially the wet stuff, I haphazardly repacked the car, threw down the tent.  I drove out of there, and that became the end of my Castle Peak adventure.

C'est la Vie!