In the spring of 1979 my wife and I hiked up into a snowy basin in the Cascades. We had a double A-frame REI tent that needed 10 stakes, and I brought small homemade Aluminum snow flukes. The snow was firm and compacted (typical spring Cascades snow).
Around 5am the wind was howling and we were snug in the tent. All of a sudden the tent collapsed on us. This led to a discussion as to who would run out and reset the stakes.
I argued that as my wife was then learning how to put up the tent, this would be an excellent chance for her to put her newfound skills to work. She argued that this required far more skill than she had, and only an expert like me could handle it.
So I ducked out of the tent with just shoes, short underwear, and a jacket on, expecting to freeze for a few minutes. Lo and behold the howling wind was incredibly warm for that time of year, over 60 degrees F.
I discovered that the stakes didn't come loose due to poor placement. Instead the snow had melted around 6 inches since we turned in a few hours earlier, and all the stakes were either just barely still in the compact snow or flopping around on the guylines.
My wife didn't believe me at first, but I finally got her to come out. She thought I was faking it to get back at her for pulling that "expert" nonsense.
That morning I realized how the 10 feet or more of compacted snow in a typical Cascades winter melts out so quickly in the spring.
