3 buddies and I spent the night with a SOBO thru hiker ( Southpaw from SC ) on Sat night 2/14 at Wise Shelter in the Mt. Rogers area of Va. He says he is the last SOBO having left Maine in mid July. He left the shelter Sun, around noon , in a blizzard headed for Thomas Knob Shelter. He never made it . He couldn't find the shelter. Dark and blowing snow made it hard to see the blazes. He spent the night on the lee side of a rock in a MSR hubba fly/ground cloth combo. Temps down where we were ( Wise shelter ) reached the single digits and the wind was SCREAMING. No telling how cold it was up where he spent the night.
To make matters worse his water bag leaked inside his down bag and soaked it. SP spent a sleepless night somewhere in the vacinity of Thomas Knob shelter and somehow made it back to Wise shelter Mon mid day covered in ice with fingers on both hands frostbitten.
Craig, luckely was there, since the other 3 of us were out day hiking. He got SouthPaw into dry clothes and put him into a dry sleeping bag and started pouring hot liquids into him. Mid afternoon the sun came out and we dried out his gear as best we could.
SP spent the night with us Mon night and Tue AM rangers showed up on 4 wheelers and took him out. His family and another SOBO were concerned, since he was overdue to Damascus, and alerted the local emergency personel. SP was going to meet up with the other SOBO in Damascus and was 5 days late getting there.
Long story short.....SouthPaw is OK. His frost bite was more painful than serious and he plans on resuming his thru in a day or two. When he reaches Sringer he will take a break then return to Massey Gap and hike into Damascus in time for Trail Days.
We stopped in Damascas Thurs and ran into him outside the Mt. Rogers Outfitters and his spirits were good. His Mom had forgiven him for making her worry so much.