It’s time for our winter training update, we spent 3 days and 2 nights out in the Mt. Washington wilderness close to Big Lake. We had a great adventure snow shoeing in just over 2.5 miles. There was four of us on snowshoes pulling a sled of supplies in through the woods and over the hills.
As I sit here surrounded by nylon, fleece, Gore-Tex and wool, all in varying degrees of clean and dry, I reflect on our journey and all the ups and downs with fondness. Two of us had never been on snowshoes or snow camping, so we had lots of learning going on.
Our camp was on an 84 inch base of snow, and we received an additional foot during our stay, this gave us an opportunity to find ways to manage accumulation and set up additional shelter outside of our tent.
We practiced getting water from a frozen lake and discussed many ways to do it. We built a fire in camp to get a little extra warmth and build those skills. We had decent weather until the last morning, which is always a bit of a downer just because we have to leave.
The last morning greeted us with a phenomenal sunrise, to give our spirits a boost. unfortunately it turned as quickly and chased us out with freezing rain and substantial wind, often biting our cheeks with the sting of the rain, it is these times that challenge your fortitude both physically and mentally. All of us are stronger for the experience.
We will be posting individual write ups on fire building, water retrieval, selecting a good spot, cooking in the snow and perspectives from a first timer.
Stay tuned for all these great write ups, until then.
As Always,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
You must be logged in to post a comment.