Beautiful panoramic views are our reward after all of the hard work. These mountains are breathtaking. We slept in this morning in hopes that the sun would make the next slope feasible. It didn't. So we hiked above the snow, climbed down a spine of boulders in the middle, and then glissaded the rest of the way down. We followed the valley floor for a while and then regained the trail. A good topo and the ability to read it has been essential. We made it finally to Elwood Pass and after that it got a little easier. The trail was on south facing slopes the rest of the day and descended to ten thousand feet, our lowest point since Cumbres Pass. 
We had real dirt trail to follow. However, there was still a lot of postholing in snow patches between trees and new challenges. We had to traverse some steep scree slopes on narrow trail. When we got to dry ground with tree protection and flat spots we stopped. It was the only possible place to camp we'd seen all day and not likely to find another. We're gonna make it! Only nine miles from Wolf Creek pass and the road to Pagosa Springs.
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