We woke up to somewhat cloudy weather with snow and ice on the ground and tents (just a bit, though). We packed up our things, giving them time to dry in the sun that came in and out of the clouds. We decided not to do an ascent hike because the peak was in and out of clouds. We went to the saddle between two lakes, took some fun pictures, and saw nice views before heading down the mountain. It was a beautiful day, and I particularly remember the wide variety of shapes and colors to the lichens and getting a last view of the high alpine area dotted with eucalyptus and beautiful lakes with rocky shores.

Angie and I had a really nice talk about a wide variety of things on our way out. At lunch we discussed which Lord of the Rings characters we were each most similar to. Angie is an Elf, I'm either an adventuresome Hobbit or a young, hasty Ent like Quickbeam or an Ent-ling. Jason is a wizard, and Pat may be Tom Bombadill. We were then ready for our steep downhill trip along the creek bed. It was a bit tough on the knees, but we made it back to the hut where we stayed the night with several other people.

That night Jason and I went down to the platform on an open area and were able to see a padamellon feeding. On the way back we saw several very cute bushtail possums up in the trees. They seem to have prehensile tails that are longer than their bodies and cute ears and eyes that they look at you with.