My favorite "go to" place is a high alpine lake in the Sawtooths. It sits in a beautiful cirque at around 9000 feet. I have some awesome summer pictures there but have always wondered what it looked like under snow. A few years ago, we were having a late winter with no snow up there yet in the middle of November. Then I heard about a big heavy snow coming so Tank and I jumped in the car and headed out. With snowshoes strapped on my back we started climbing the six mile trail with 1600 feet of elevation. The plan was to get up there and get set before the storm hit, spend the night or whatever it took until the weather cleared so I could get my pictures. About half way, I took a break and some pictures of the dusting already on the peaks. The weather was looking ugly so we hurried on up the trail. Within a half mile of my goal, I realized I had left that fancy new camera they gave me when I retired sitting on a rock at that break spot. It was already starting to snow. Tank was getting nervous because there were fresh wolf tracks going our way as well. Two choices, hurry on up and get set but not get any pictures and possibly tangle with a wolf, or turn around and save my camera. Tank said it was time to go back so we did. Found my camera okay and also found about six inches of snow by the time we got to the car. That storm lasted about three days.
Bottom line is I have never shied away from a storm unless other factors entered in. Likewise, I have never worried about aborting a plan when the time to abort came around. This comes from experience and experience comes from surviving your earlier mistakes.
I'm sure we would have got off the mountain okay but my car would have probably wintered in that parking lot and Tank and I would have had to hitchhike home.
