Blizzard in Minnesota / Fat Biking & Hiking

Backcountry Snowboard / Snowshoe Adventure @ 10th Mountain Hut

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Left Minnesota on Saturday night, drove 170 miles through a blizzard.

 200 miles later pulled into a wayside rest stop at 3:45am, temp was 48 degrees and slept for 3 hours.

 Sunday, put the hammer down and clicked off the miles on dry roads.

This was just crazy...We pull off the interstate at Ogallala NE to get gas, I am in the gas station and look out the door. A trailer full of mountain snowmobiles is driving through the station and I spot my buddy Larry's Ski Doo on the front of the trailer. They were on their way back from a 4 day trip to Colorado. Crazy!! Had a quick chat with them and we parted our ways, one west and one group east. 

 Out on a warm-up hike the day before the snowshoe hike up to the 10th Mountain Hut.

 We got 8 inches of fresh snow today, it was great to be in a mountain town Winter Park, Colorado. We went driving some backroads around Winter Park.

My backcountry pack with sleeping bag, food, and supplies for 3 days at the backcountry cabin. It is about a 6 mile snowshoe hike to the cabin. Our goal is to hike up to the 13,000 ft. peak and ski and snowboard down...Hike On!!  

Hyalite Avalanche Fatality-10 December 2009

Wyoming 12-09 / Pictures

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Wyoming / Wed. / 12-9-10

1 Word > BLIZZARD

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In the trees, that's where we headed today. We woke up to -12 degrees and 60 mph winds. This kind of weather thins the herd, there was only 2 other trucks on the mountain today. One was the Yamaha factory truck, they were just hanging in their trailer out of the wind. We unloaded and headed straight north from the trailhead. It is an area the locals call no-mans land. You make your own trails up there, no groomed trails, but you can stay in the trees and poke out off and on. The snow was really variable with big drifts of powder and underneath would be a crust and underneath the crust would be sugar snow. This was a day of many stuck and tricky situations. GOOD TIMES!! It is like snowboarding in the trees with a 500 pound, 147 horsepower critter, you pick your line through the trees and float or power through untouched powder anywhere from 1 foot deep to 7 feet deep.

One of my stuck times. I rode up a little rise in the woods and ended up above a creek. It was about a 10 foot drop into the creek, so not a good option, so option 2 was to power through 3 big drifts and not roll into the creek. Oh, and not plow into the trees on the other side. Well I made it through 2 1/2 drifts and then buried it. But stayed out of the creek. In the meantime Larry was stuck in another part of the creek. so you pull out your shovel and dig the sled out.

In the woods out of the wind, we were out in some exposed areas in the midday and later in the day we climbed a mountain where it was all wind blown. Rocks and logs exposed. Working our way back late in the day we tryed to work our way back south to the trailhead. We made a long winding climb up through rocks and small scrub pines, got on top and the wind was blowing hard and the snow was drifted and full of rocks. no way to cross over. We had to drag the sleds around and descend back down the climb. we then worked our way back through the creek in the woods and headed back towards the truck.

When we got out of the woods and a few miles to ride, we pulled off and took a short break. One last energy drink to hydrate, We had been at 10 - 11,200 feet all day. It was great to be on our way back to the truck after all day in the mountains. With no trail to follow and as it gets later in the day you have to make sure that there are not mistakes made or incidents. With the temperture at -3 and the winds howling it wouldn't be a great night to camp out.

Packed up and ready to head home.

Wyoming in May

The new helmet protecting the new face hardware.

The view from the cockpit of the Wyoming snowscape.

Natures art.

Sidehilling in the fresh pow, making my own trail.

Sled meets tree.

30 minutes later, sled is free and tree is slightly trimmed. That is why you should carry a shovel and folding wood saw.

A sweet 60 MPH wind.The snow was deep for May 2nd.

One of the local Wyoming guys I rode with on Saturday catching some air.

12,000 foot ridge.

With the Snowy Mountains in the mirror, I was heading home on Saturday, May 2, after riding all day. This was a good Wyoming sled adventure.

I left home Wed. night , sledded Thur., Fri. and Sat.. Got home Sun morning by noon, 2100 round trip miles later. In those 4 days in the mountains there was a blizzard that dumped about 18 - 22 inches of snow with winds up to 70 MPH. Good times!!

Backcountry Montana, Last Day & Images From the Road

Traveling in avalanche country is a switch-back climb from safe area to safe area. I feel vulnerable when traveling across exposed sections. I dug a pit and was checking the snow with my ski poles as I climbed. The snow was fairly stable in this area. I also checked the Montana Avy sites each day. As I'm posting this blog, there are two young men missing near Wolf Creek, Colorado. There were also several DEADLY AVALANCHES across the western USA in the last 2 weeks. My thoughts go out to all that were involved. Don't take the snow for granted!!

Also for being STRANDED in the backcountry, get your self a good pack and carry some basics. Avy Beacon, I use a BCA Tracker. One or two bottles of water and energy drink. Some Cliff Bars,beef jerky, a bag of peanuts. Fire starter basics, a lighter and some matches, some fire starter material. A small folding wood saw is good. I like a metal shovel, with an integrated probe (BCA), because I can melt snow on it if I have to. Compass, flashlight. I also carry 2, two-way radios with extra batteries (if you were stranded, you could put the radio on scan and try to pick up a signal). An extra vest and a pair of clear goggles, in case of dark (night).


I had just posted this post and I found this story on the snowmobilers, it brought back this memory. It kinda hit home.

I just read the story of the 6 snowmobilers that had to hole up in a cabin in Colorado during a storm last week.

Well this is my story. Back in February 2006, my wife and I drive all night, arrive at the trail-head in Wyoming. Well we unload the sleds and head up into the mountains. We head up north onto the ungroomed trails. It gets later in the day and we end up with one of the sleds stuck in a ravine, we double up on the 800 RMK and start back south. It's getting dark and it starts snowing. I switch to the clear goggles as it starts snowing harder. I gave my wife a flashlight to scan to the sides, as the snow became blinding. We managed to stay in contact with the trail. The direct way back to the truck crossed an open expanse where the winds were howling across at 70 MPH. No go. We stayed in the trees, but with the blinding snow it was slow going. I remembered a hut in the area from mountain biking in the area 3 years ago but we would need a bit of luck to find it in those conditions. That flashlight that my wife was using to scan the sides of the trail, that was how we found the hut (I now pack a headlite for my helmet).

We had been out in the blizzard for 6 hours. I jumped off the sled and checked the door, it was open. Unbelievable, it was about 7 ft. by 14 ft., it had a dirt floor and a little wood stove, no wood, but for now, shelter. During the night I had to go out 3 times into the dark and find wood. The second time out I almost missed the hut in the snow on my way back. It snowed 36 inches in that storm. I had my food and water. That is where the metal shovel came in handy because I was able to melt and drink 4 bottles of water during the night. We were at 10,400 feet. My wife got sick during the night, so I had her slowly eat and drink as she went in and out of sleep. I ended up sleeping just before daylight. About 9:00 the next morning we decided to attempt the ride back to the truck. It was still dumping snow as we set out. The snow was coming up over the hood on the sled. It was a crazy ride, wife just kept her head down and didn't see a thing all the way back. Damn near a white-out.

We got back to the truck about noon. Here is the kicker. Our faithful Lab Gunnar was sleeping in our truck. He hopped out took a pee and promptly rolled in the fresh snow, happy as hell to see us. We had been gone from the truck for 23 hours. We went back up the next day and found the other sled. That's a whole nother story.

Wind-blown over my snowshoe trail.

I made my mark on the mountain, it will be covered in the next day or two.

Yeah, this is where I want to be.

The 8oo RMK got the call today. The wind was kicking up a bit with some blowing snow.

The ipod and pillow for 1000 miles, the price to pay for mountain snow.

The Crazy Mountains of Montana. Some day I'm gonna take that exit and go get Crazy.