Here I take a picture of Andra taking a picture of the unnamed lake. :)

As we made our way to Ireland Lake the temps got colder and the winds grew faster. By the time we reached the lake, the winds were nearly knocking us down and my hands were so cold I couldn't feel my fingers. My fingers were so numb; I had to get Andra to unbuckle my gear. We foolishly attributed this insane wind to Ireland Lake and decided they named it Ireland Lake because of the awful weather. However, in reality, the weather people had expected high winds this day (Ya, a full day in advance with their prediction. Whoohoo! So much for science's understanding of the weather a whopping few days out. Oh ya, but they can predict global warming out for centuries...)

We unpacked only the tent and tried to keep anything light from blowing away. I double staked the tent in the upwind direction and set my full backpack over the top of the stakes to keep them from ripping out of the ground. As quickly as we could throw our sleeping bags in the tent, we disappeared inside to warm up. We broke open four heat packs and discussed what we would do for dinner. Andra was concerned I'd fall into the lake trying to pump water and just wanted to eat food bars (She didn't see the spot I was planning to pump water and thought we had to pump down a steep dirt cliff). I could tell Andra was a bit unnerved, so I went out and grabbed some food bars.

At times, the winds were blowing so hard the tent would completely collapse if it weren't for me holding my arms up to support it. I slept up against the upwind wall to add additional support. Even during the night, when I'd hear the sound of the wind roar, my arm would shoot up to prevent the tent poles from snapping as it collapsed. We decided that if the winds died down by morning, we'd pack up and descend into Lyell Canyon before making breakfast. We were still thinking that Ireland Lake was in a nasty wind tunnel and didn't want to try to pack up in high winds.