So when "winter camping" came up as a possible class, it seemed like a good idea. We camp occasionally, although John is the expert of the family and I tend to tag along and try to get comfortable with it. I have a decent notion of how to move through the outdoors, much less of an idea how to stop and sleep in it. I might be a bit of a Trail Diva.
Yeah, I'll get some training while John installs solar panels in San Jose for the weekend. He tends to avoid "winter" whenever possible, while I at least have the experience of growing up in northern Vermont. OK, I'm in.
And then... there was a snowstorm in the Sierras. Snow, snow, more snow. Cancel the class? Heck no, apparently this was perfect (?). I just have to get there. I caught a ride up from Auburn with a super helpful fellow classmate whose truck has 4WD - thank you Brian! It simply rained in Auburn, but it didn't take much ascending before the road was covered in snow. Happily the roads were well-tended by the highway crew and we didn't have any trouble getting up to Truckee.
Our instructor Darren got us assembled, distributed winter tents and extra gear, did a short nav class while we were still indoors and waiting for our road to open, then we were off to brave the cold white wilderness.
Snowshoeing up the road - and it's snowing again. Better get used to it!
At the start of the canyon where we were supposed to follow a "trail" for a couple miles... except the snow was already waist-deep and required shoveling and a lot of effort to get anywhere, especially uphill carrying heavy packs:
Darren made an excellent executive decision and decreed we would camp at the first flat spot we came to. We would just have to ignore the occasional sound of a car going by on the nearby road and pretend we were deep in the backcountry. I was thinking, "hey, if I get really cold tonight, I can trek back to the truck, so that works for me!" Yes, for sure I was wondering how the sleeping would go.
We shoveled out flat areas and attempted to stake down the tents. Occasionally a step near the willow plants resulted in a post-hole event. For example, check out Robert on the left side of this photo:
We used trekking poles and snowshoes to help with the tie-downs. It continued to snow (about a gazillion large fluffy flakes per minute), so you had to keep an eye on anything that you set down on the snow. It would disappear within a few minutes and might be difficult to locate again until spring.
Darren brought a group shelter tent, and we set about to building a "kitchen" under it:
Complete with a table for the stoves and benches to sit on - snow can be pretty useful!
The group split up to melt snow for water and to build a quinzee. I decided that learning how to do the snow melting would be more useful in the long run. We got several stoves fired up, a bunch of snow gathered in a large trash bag, everyone's bottles collected, and it was time to work out a system of melting snow and scooping water:
View from inside the kitchen - yep, still snowing:
The group made a large pile of snow for the quinzee (snow hut) - lots of shoveling and packing it down. I did some shoveling briefly and it always helped to shovel if I wanted to warm up. It was pretty amazing watching the progress:
Photo from the inside as the quinzee is getting hollowed out - pretty neat concept!
The finished product. Two guys slept in it overnight and reported that the roof slowly turned from concave to convex and got closer to their faces... but Darren had promised that it wouldn't collapse, and it didn't.
Huddling together over dinner as Darren explained the best ways to stay warm. Change into dry clothes. Keep your boots inside the tent. Put any important clothes (that you don't have on) under you, either inside the sleeping bag or at least under the bag on top of the mat so it doesn't freeze overnight.
Snow kept piling up on the sides of the tents and I was a bit skeptical, but here we are so we just have to deal with it.
Nighttime went surprisingly OK. Two sleeping mats, a good sleeping bag, an excellent tent, and a bunch of clothes kept me warm. I thought I was the right amount of "slightly dehydrated" but I still really had to pee around midnight so there wasn't any choice but to get up and do it. Boots on, plow through the path to the "pee tree" that was again a wade-fest through knee-deep snow, tramp down a spot, try not to get snow into everything (mostly succeeded), trudge on back.
Various people were clearing off the tents every couple hours to keep them from getting completely buried overnight, so I took a turn at that. Then back into the sleeping bag, still mostly warm. I slept on and off, I certainly wouldn't call it a good sleep, but it wasn't a sufferfest so I was quite happy about the whole thing.
First one out of the tent in the morning (I have to pee again??) and I managed to wake up enough to snap a photo of our home for the night. This is after it had been cleared off multiple times overnight. On the bright side - it's a beautiful morning!
The guys survived the night in the quinzee:
Time for the fun stuff, a bit of winter ropes work. Darren originally had his eye on a rockface higher up, but digging out a trail up to it was going to take hours. So we settled for a spot a bit closer. Traversing on rope with our helmets and ice axes. And crampons on - "we brought them, we're going to practice with them," said Darren, even though they weren't doing much for us.
Practicing passing anchors:
Woo hoo, it's a lovely day!
A fun little rappel down a rockface:
You didn't have to go far to lose sight of our tent village:
Testing the roof of the quinzee - hmm, maybe the inside was scraped a bit thin:
Well, there it is! Good thing we were staying only one night:
Packing up to trek back before it started snowing again:
More rocks to play on - another time when they are easier to get to:
One more task! This is how much snow fell in about 24 hours, wow:
Good thing we had plenty of shovels and lots of energy (and motivation) to do some more digging. And 4WD vehicles to drive on out.
Well, that was quite the experience! I can't say I'm a winter camping convert, but it does help me appreciate camping in nice weather. Maybe we'll do some of that later this year.
Thanks MAA and Darren for an excellent class!
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