Escorts Tracy: Stockton/lodi

Let's be honest we all searched this up because we were bored

I would of went like the clappers if that was me.

This happened to me on a similarly sloped mountain in Colorado. We didn't expect snow to be on the mountain in July and it completely covered the only path down the mountain. A storm was coming, I'm talking lighting that we could hear and see quickly approaching, so we had to make the crossing immediately. All I had on me was hiking shoes, a 30 pound pack, no spikes, no helmet, no axe, no gloves. The snow had had its surface melted from sunlight during the day, which led to about an inch or two of loose ice on its surface. Got about 10 feet across the trail and completely lost my grip and started sliding essentially as fast as gravity would allow at that angle. Probably got going 15-20 mph before I punched my hands into praying I would slow down and didn't roll down the entire slope and break my legs or slam my head against a rock. Even if I had only broken my legs, we were about 10 miles from the entrance to the trail and 20+ miles from the nearest hospital, with no supplies to deal with that type of wound. My rate of descent didn't slow much and my hands were getting obliterated by the ice, but it was the only thing I could think of, so I just plunged them deeper. I eventually slowed to an unstable stop about 30 or so feet down from where I started slipping. Just sat there for a while taking in what happened and holding on as tight as I could, my hands were completely raw, the surface skin had been stripped down and they were so so cold. Spent the next 10 minutes slowly making my way back up, repeatedly slipping back down several feet. We eventually got off the snow and I basically couldn't talk for about half an hour. My hands have never hurt like that before and I don't believe I have ever been that close to death. Imagine trying to get a grip on a surface that just has no traction and isn't solid while basically in free fall. The craziest part is, there was someone who was a day ahead of us doing the same multi-day path solo. When we got to the snow, we noticed a trail going 40 or so feet straight down, and an accompanying set of angled footsteps back up with repeated smaller slides. That person probably thought he was going to end up bleeding out at the bottom of a valley alone, at least I had people with me who may have been able to help.