Grizzly

I planned to take my pal Paul on a ski tour this morning. Paul is a good hiker, snowmobile and skier but had not been on a back country ski tour. He has size 10 feet and I have an extra setup right now so everything was working out - except the weather. What a difference a day makes. When Brett and I got super fun turns in soft snow Paul and I were looking at a 2 inch suncrust on the same snow. We started up the same path but turned around and went to Grizzly Gulch. We hiked up the summer road to the cat track. We had switched boot liners to get a better fit for Paul. When I put the liners back in my boots the left foot liner folded over a piece of plastic from the boot shell. It created a lump on my heel and quickly made me uncomfortable. I tried to wiggle my foot around as I hiked hoping I could work the knot out but that didn't work at all. All the time the wind continued to gust at higher and higher speeds making hiking uncomfortable. I finally had to stop to take my boot off and the liner out to see what the problem was. That's when I discovered the folded plastic. I fixed it all up and put the boot back together and back on my freezing foot. It felt better immediately. But the damage was done. My heel hurt to keep hiking. With that and the windy weather and the icy, unskiable snow conditions I was inclined to turn around and call it a day. Paul was pretty sad that his first outing was a bust. I was too plus I have a sore heel.