Here's a look at the Porters Creek manway in winter conditions. Paul and I headed up from the old Smoky Mountain Hiking Club Cabin down at the Porters Creek trailhead with snow spitting down from leaden skies. By the time we reached the campsite at the end of the trail, there was about 8 inches of snow on the ground with plenty more still falling. It was beautiful, but cold, really cold, as we slogged through the rhododendron that the manway passes through. We made it to the Wall, and climbed up for a short distance, but we knew that even if we made the top of the climb that the descent would be extremely hazardous. Discretion, as they say, is the finer point of valor, so we saved the climb for another day.