Tales From My Trekking Poles: January 2013

A cold, clear night with sparkling snow

Trekking poles assist in measuring depth of snow

It has been a couple of weeks since I have been able to get into the mountains, so last night about 6:30 I headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon to get out of the smog and inversion of the valley. I happened to be listening to the radio on the way up, but it was a talk show about UFO's and alien abductions, and it kind of creeped me out, so I turned off the radio. I don't mind going into the mountains alone at night when I can't find someone to go with me, but I do not recommend thinking about aliens and UFO's when alone! Near the top of the canyon, I made a sharp left at the sign that says' Guardsman's Pass closed for winter'. I drove a couple of miles on dry road to the locked gate, Be sure to pay attention to the 'No Parking' signs, because you will be ticked/towed even in the middle of winter! I strapped on my snowshoes, grabbed my pack and headed up the road. I marveled at what a difference a 30 minute drive up the canyon can make: No smog, not a cloud in the sky, and incredible number of sparkling stars in the night sky. As usual, I left my thermometer home, but it was probably a good ten degrees warmer than in the valley, maybe a temperature of 25 degrees. Since it was so warm, I left my down jacket in the car and wore a light breathable jacket. It does not take long to generate a lot of body heat while snowshoeing, and you want to avoid sweating a lot, because it will be really cold when you stop moving. I hiked up the road to a place we have snow camped before, to check out the conditions. I stepped off the road into about 3 feet of light powder, and swept some of it away to do a test dig. A great way to dig a snow cave is with a regular wood saw. I cut out blocks of snow easily and scooped them out. The snow was over 5 feet deep, and normally that would be plenty for a snow cave, but with 3 feet of powder, I want to find a spot that has been more exposed to the sun than the North-facing slope I was on. I plan to camp up here next weekend with Jake and his friends. I will continue this blog after that.
Lesson learned: If you see black plastic filings in the snow when you are sawing, you may be cutting into your snowshoe! Oops! No harm done, just a little notch for me to laugh about on future hikes!

Update for 1/26/2013: I did not end up going snow cave camping Friday due to an unusual ice storm the day before, causing very slick roads. However, I did go back up to Guardsman's pass to do some more snowshoeing Saturday. I hiked up to Scott's Pass. See a good description of this hike on the Salt Lake Tribune Outdoors section hike of the week: http://www.sltrib.com/csp/cms/sites/sltrib/Outdoors/hikes.csp?hike=338. On my way up I saw a 2 foot-tall snowman in the middle of the road. I took a picture of it and wondered how long a white snowman would last in the middle of a white road frequented by snowmobilers. Alas, on my way back, I noticed that the snowman was no more. I did rescue the 1988 quarter that had been used for its nose.