survival in the mountains

Just back from the Tushar Mountains in Southern Utah. 40 inches of new snow in four days on top of a lean shallow snowpack made for a poor introduction to the area but promised good powder. The town of Beaver is 85% mormon and the old ski area has been closed a few years. The 19 mile drive up the unplowed canyon made me glad to be sporting my studded snowtires!

The next morning we slogged up the 4.6 mile trail while snowmobiles ferried our gear to the yurt. Blisters began to emerge on many after a few miles, but spirits were high. Arrival at the yurt proved to be a bit of a shock, as the yurt was one of the smallest models ever made and i wondered how we would all drink and dine. Some of the tents looked like they were salvaged from the Vietnam War, and some were missing their poles. I was glad to have brought my MSR Wind 4 Burly Tent at the last minute and minus 40 bag! The next shocker was to find that the outfitter had only 3 pots to melt water AND cook for us all. I could see the work piling up already as we scrambled to dig snow pits for the tents and figure out how to melt water, make hot drinks and feed the hungry tired group.

Dinner took about three hours to serve, but we were surviving. I was quite dehydrated and hungry when i crawled into my tent. Breakfast was a repeat of dinner, but we just kept dealing as best we could. After some more beacon practice we headed out to explore the area and test the snowpack on different aspects. It was bonding better than expected on the hefty suncrust so we were able to make two mellow but longer laps on a NE aspect. In the afternoon, we dug a full profile snowpit. I taught everyone to do Tilt, Compression, Shear, and Ruschblock tests. We got an easy tilt a 20cm, moderate compression and hard shear failure on the suncrust and a two moderate shear failures on the depth hoar. Not your typical pit for Utah - as it looked way more continental than intercontinental due to the lack of snow. For those of you who don't know why shallow generally means a weaker snowpack, well, the long and the short of it is that the rounding and joining of snow grains happens when temps are around freezing and the snowpack is deeper. When the pack is shallow, the vapor pressure difference between the ground and the air is able to overwhelm the vapor pressure causing the rounding of the flakes. Therefore, the flakes start to go square or cupped instead (depth hoar or faceting), which reduces bonding potential. I like to think of the faceted snow as being similar to the pen of balls that children jump in at the county fairs.

Back to the yurt for more slave labor melting and heating water to keep people warm and hydrated. Then the epic for dinner. Added to the spice this evening was the addition of a broken stove, which we certainly couldn't afford, and now a storm was moving in with high winds to top things off and test the tents. The group was all smiles in spite of it all. Luckily no tents collapsed, but some did get quite wet. The morning dawned clear with about 7" of new powder and Leslie I set up two Avalanche rescue scenarios.Some of the fake victims (backpacks with beacons) did not get rescued in time, and everyone learned lots about what not to do in the future. We then headed of for some turns in the trees. As people faded and started drinking beer, a few of usmanaged to sneak in some extra runs. The sun was setting on our final run and the conditions were perfect - glowing orange snow and stellar views. After the best snow of the trip, we merged with the 4.6 mile track which had become a bit of a iced bobsled run. Half way down we discovered a pile of blood where Frank had caught and edge and landed on his nose. I felt lucky that we had survived a potential touchy situation, and managed to have quite a bit of fun on top of it all.