When the quarterback of an American “football” team changes his mind and wants to edit the play at the last second, it is referred to as “calling an audible” — for whispering the change among the offense, we’d guess. One reason a quarterback might want to do this is to respond to changes to the defensive line of scrimmage, for example.
While the term was once limited to the game and coined for them, the concept is not new. Hikers sometimes do it, too. Hikers respond to changes quite often, in fact. From layer changes to changing the mind completely, throwing in the towel. And there may be myriad reasons for doing so. Redline Guide Pat Ferland called an audible on his most recent guided hike, for a solid reason, of course.
Our returning guest is working on the Terrifying 25 list, and on tap for the day was supposed to be the notorious Six Husbands Trail (it’s complicated). They would ascend that then follow Gulfside Trail to Sphinx Col. From there they would descend Sphinx River, err, Sphinx Trail which is also on that list. With water levels still quite high, however, it was decided before they began to change up the plan.
They decided to take on another hike on another mountain knowing full well, Six Husbands and Sphinx will be there another day. Ultimately they ended up hiking to the summit of Carter Dome (4840′) — one of those 4000-footers — then headed over to an unqualified Mt Hight (4690′) to enjoy that mountain’s great views as well. Other trip highlights included a at Carter Notch Hut where they refilled their water and ate snacks.
All and all it was a good day, albeit hot and humid. Here are some photos, not necessarily in any order.
