It was a sunny, beautiful day with marginal ski conditions. Here are the photos.
Month: January 2014
After a long winter dry spell, our snowpack is about 25% of normal for this time of year. I worried that the snowpack wouldn't be very interesting for the avalanche class field trip. However, a massive snowstorm was predicted to arrive a day or so before the trip. Yay, I think.
Randy and I drove the camper up to the Mountaineers Lodge parking lot at the Mt. Baker ski area Friday night. Snow covered the road on the way up but getting there was easy enough. We parked and started to get settled, noticing the wind howling outside mostly because the camper would rattle and shake violently with each big gust. Unfortunately each gust blew out matches, lighters, torches that I attempted to light the furnace. We had a Mr. Heater for a little while, until the propane emptied. Turning the camper around to avoid the wind was impractical (impossible) because a car double-parked directly behind us and our heads would be downhill.
Feeling rather demoralized we went to bed, only to be awakened every 5 seconds from a giant rattling gust of wind. For a while I dreamt I was on a boat in high seas. Morning arrived; the camper warmed somewhat when we turned on the burner to make coffee.
We met our student groups and lead instructors. We spent as much of the morning indoors as possible reviewing the plan for the day, emergency procedures, the weather and avalanche forecast (snowy, windy, high avalanche danger), and gear. Mid-morning we went out to check the battery power and range of our avalanche beacons. As much as possible we found places sheltered from the wind to practice companion rescue. Still, most of us wore 4-5 layers, 2 pairs of gloves, 2-3 pants, goggles, a helmet or hat and hood. Mostly our noses were out.
Poor visibility dictated our distance from each other and the wind stole our words. Foggy goggles and driving snow hid dips and even big terrain features, causing several of us to fall when our skies fell out from under us. Three guys were blown over by gusts of wind. And then it was time to go in and reunite with the rest of the class.
The wind died down so Randy got the furnace lit. Oh happy day! Suddenly everything seemed easier, there was magically more room in the camper, our gear would dry. We went back to the lodge for an hour or so to help our student groups prepare the next days' ski tour plan. It was really warm in the camper but we didn't want to turn off the furnace for fear of not getting it lit in the morning. I slept on top of my bag and rather well.
Overnight and the last couple days 2-3' of new snow fell. Avalanche danger was still high but our group agreed to avoid avalanche terrain and stay on slopes 20 degrees or less. It was less windy but no less snowy. We spent the day practicing observations relevant to avalanche danger, navigation in low visibility conditions, staying warm and hydrated, traveling uphill as a group, digging snow pits to look at the different snow layers, and finally traveling downhill as a group. I discovered that my skis needed waxing when I could ski uphill without skins on the bottom
We closed out the course with only a couple minor injuries but no one quit in spite of the very challenging conditions. Everyone stayed to help dig out the cars and push the stuck ones over the snow humps. It ended up being a fun weekend with a great group of people.
There are no pictures as I did not want to deglove. The photos would've been a blur of white anyway.
Our vacation began Thursday, December 26 but we didn't actually leave until Friday, December 27. We got home yesterday, Friday January 3, around 4:30. I got back in the car to drive up to Burlington to pick up JodeeDog. Otherwise, I would've had to wait until Monday.
It's good to be home, although we had a good trip. We spent two nights at couins Dee and Shaun's in our camper on the way up to Spokane Mountain. They fed us and let us use their bathroom. Skiing at Mt. Spokane was nice, mostly because it was sunny. There hadn't been any fresh snow in a while so conditions were "fast". It was fun getting together with the Van Wert cousins and their 6 kids plus the Maguires. We had a lot of Gma's recipes during the visit. The Van Wert kids were all generous with their candy gifts. They are better than anyone I can think of about sharing.
We had intended to drive on to Missoula that night but Shaun and Crissi convinced us to stop in Kellogg, ID and ski at Silver Mountain. I'm glad we did because the drive was easy and there was free camping in a lot adjacent to the Gondola that goes up to the ski area. The snow was pretty good there — they had some recent snow.
From there we went to Missoula and camped up at the Snowbowl ski area in the parking lot. Which is where we found out that our blackwater tank had a leak, not a bad one but still not something we really wanted to deal with right then. And it was raining at the ski area so we felt a little discouraged. However, it was snowing in the morning and the lift tickets were cheap. The summit is about 7400' so there was good snow off the groomed runs.
That was New Year's Eve so we decided to get a room back in town. It was time for a shower again and we didn't want to deal with our plumbing problem. The first hotel we came to, a C'mon Inn, looked pretty fancy so we were a little worried about price. To our surprise, it was only $99 for a room with a king bed. Plus a free hot breakfast in the morning! We watched Monsters University on tv then called it a night. Party poopers!
The next morning we were still not ready to face the camper yet so debated the merits of going home (Wednesday) or continuing on as planned to Whitefish. We both decided that we weren't ready to give up so off we went.
At the Whitefish resort (it's no longer called Big Mountain), we found a lot we thought we could camp. It was still early so we walked all the way up to the "village", which consists of old lodging and a lot of new, plus restaurants and bars. I wasn't feeling that great from recent indulgences in rich food and was a little surly. We walked by the "reservations" door a couple times before I mentioned I'd like to consider sleeping indoors again. To our surprise again, there was a room that would fit our needs (indoor plumbing and a bed) at the Hibernation House for a little over $100. And our lift tickets were only $50 each (instead of $69 each). Once again we got indoor plumbing, a bed, and a free hot breakfast. As I've mentioned before, indoor plumbing in the winter is priceless!
We had a great day of skiing and briefly considered staying another night (indoors) but decided we'd had enough, spent enough and were ready to go home. We left the resort after our legs were tired and headed back to Kellogg, ID for that free lot next to the gondola. We were both ready to face the camper again, mostly because indoor plumbing was only a walk across the parking lot.
In summary, we skied 4 resorts, stayed 5 nights in the camper and two night indoors. We pretty much ate breakfast in the camper (homemade yogurt and cereal) but bought lunch and dinner. I think eating out eased any potential "closeness" issues in the camper. After all, how many people do you know could spend 5 nights in a camper and still like each other? It seemed like the only time we got snippy at each other was when it was getting close to dinner time. Predictable.
Eventually I will get the photos that Randy took and share them. I took photos with my iPhone periodically during the trip and posted them on Facebook.
Next time we go to Spokane in winter, we wil consider Schweitzer resort in Idaho instead of Mt. Spokane. We talked to a lady on the chairlift at Whitefish, who was from Spokane and reported that Schweitzer has better skiing. Happy New Year!