This should be a fun read as all of us have a lot of them to relate
This is one of mine circa 1983
Another close call. Weather forecast was for light snow showers in Yosemite. Ranger Chis Knauer and I decided to take our backcountry skis and ski from Crane Flat to Toulumne Meadows on a 3 day ski trip mid winter. For some stupid reason we took a 3+ season tent instead of my heavy 4 season Mountaineering tent. We got about 5 miles in and the storm started to hit so we made camp in a spot clear of any potential deadfall or avalanche cooked dinner and crawled into the tent for the night.
Some hours later I woke up, the air in the tent was bad. I went to sit up,nope. The snowfall had not only buried the tent it had collapsed onto us from the weight. I woke Chris up, we were both groggy from the CO2 build up. It was bad, the only thing I could think to do was roll onto our stomachs and push upwards on hands and knees with our backs to the tent roof to give us some working space. It took 3 tries but we made some room.
I unzipped the tent door and tried to punch an arm up to fresh air. Crap we were buried way to deep for that. Our ski poles were under the fly and they screw together end to end to make an avalanche probe that is 7 feet long. We used that to punch an air hole. Man the first blast of fresh air was simply amazing, total life saver.
We geared up and started digging a tunnel to the surface packing the snow on the side or the rain flys vestibule. Close to 8 feet of snow had fallen. That light snow fall had blossomed into a full on Winter Sierra Blizzard. It took us an hour to clear the tent and it was still dumping. We decided to set our alarms to go off each hour and take turns clearing the tent. believe me that sucked every two hours getting dressed and shoveling for 15 minutes.
The storm let up at 9am with close to 12 feet of squeaky powder having fallen. Telemark skiers delight. We stuck to heavily treed slopes to avoid triggering and avalanche and had a blast with waist deep untracked powder for hours. Then it started to snow again. A quick check of the weather radio indicated that it was time to bug out as another blast was going to hit and last for days.
It was snowing heavily when we reached my truck and it took two hours to dig it out then make it two hundred feet to the plowed road and drive back into Yosemite and check in and the back country permit station. Ranger La Cass was there to greet us. We were high school buddies. She just looked at us shook her head then asked "So how bad was it up there last night ( we were at 9000'). Chris just said "Bad enough that we are back here at 3000 feet tonight".
This is one of mine circa 1983
Another close call. Weather forecast was for light snow showers in Yosemite. Ranger Chis Knauer and I decided to take our backcountry skis and ski from Crane Flat to Toulumne Meadows on a 3 day ski trip mid winter. For some stupid reason we took a 3+ season tent instead of my heavy 4 season Mountaineering tent. We got about 5 miles in and the storm started to hit so we made camp in a spot clear of any potential deadfall or avalanche cooked dinner and crawled into the tent for the night.
Some hours later I woke up, the air in the tent was bad. I went to sit up,nope. The snowfall had not only buried the tent it had collapsed onto us from the weight. I woke Chris up, we were both groggy from the CO2 build up. It was bad, the only thing I could think to do was roll onto our stomachs and push upwards on hands and knees with our backs to the tent roof to give us some working space. It took 3 tries but we made some room.
I unzipped the tent door and tried to punch an arm up to fresh air. Crap we were buried way to deep for that. Our ski poles were under the fly and they screw together end to end to make an avalanche probe that is 7 feet long. We used that to punch an air hole. Man the first blast of fresh air was simply amazing, total life saver.
We geared up and started digging a tunnel to the surface packing the snow on the side or the rain flys vestibule. Close to 8 feet of snow had fallen. That light snow fall had blossomed into a full on Winter Sierra Blizzard. It took us an hour to clear the tent and it was still dumping. We decided to set our alarms to go off each hour and take turns clearing the tent. believe me that sucked every two hours getting dressed and shoveling for 15 minutes.
The storm let up at 9am with close to 12 feet of squeaky powder having fallen. Telemark skiers delight. We stuck to heavily treed slopes to avoid triggering and avalanche and had a blast with waist deep untracked powder for hours. Then it started to snow again. A quick check of the weather radio indicated that it was time to bug out as another blast was going to hit and last for days.
It was snowing heavily when we reached my truck and it took two hours to dig it out then make it two hundred feet to the plowed road and drive back into Yosemite and check in and the back country permit station. Ranger La Cass was there to greet us. We were high school buddies. She just looked at us shook her head then asked "So how bad was it up there last night ( we were at 9000'). Chris just said "Bad enough that we are back here at 3000 feet tonight".