Yep it's true it is not the best idea to do that stuff in the snow.
The 1.5 mile hike is very easy unless the path is covered by a little more than a foot of snow.
We spent forever throwing my rope twenty feet up to a ladder so we can ascend to it. (yes, I realized the whole reason why we were not going caving was to avoid this)
You would think climbing a small metal ladder 50 feet above the ground in a blizzard is scary, but seeing how our hands would freeze to the ladder and we would have to tear them off to grab the next step it was pretty safe.
As me and my tongue found out your hands are not the only things that freeze to the ladder.
It was a white out! visibility was about 30 feet and when you are staring down a 80 foot repel it's scary.
It didn't help that while I was staring over the edge I slipped on the ice and found myself repelling a little earlier then expected.
Good thing no one around spoke Russian so they didn't understand what I yelled when I slipped.
We were planning on following our footprints back down. The tracks were gone and we ended up hiking down in snow almost up to my knees. It was Cold, OK Freezing.
Hiking time 1 hr 30 min
Ascending climbing time 40 min.
Tying in time 30 min
Repel time 20 sec.
This morning Joe and I had funny faced pancakes.
