Rather than being able to find comfort in the lee of trees, the switchbacks were an entirely different form of camping—or rather, survival, considering being cold could mean death.
"It will be slow from this point forward," Irene warned her husband. "Just as during winterization, it's too dangerous to ride horses up these rocky areas, but Sammy successfully followed me once." She turned to pat her horse. "He can do it again."
They had to speak loudly to communicate with one another. Once they had gotten out of the mist because it had moved higher in the atmosphere and was replaced with a cloudy day, they were faced with winds. These areas were bare and rocky as compared to the lower elevations of foothills. It was obvious why trees couldn't grow here.
