EASTER BREAK
Shea and I went to Haines, Alaska for our four day weekend. On the way we stopped at "the pass" to 'winter camp.' This all basically involves us stopping in the mountains that separate the pan-handle, Alaska with interior Yukon. The mountains are above tree-line and popular amongst locals for ski-dooing and skiing. Shea and I, more on the Mountain Man's prerogative than my own, spent a night in the mountains in a snow-cave.
Shea skiing our gear into the mounatins (we camped maybe 3km from the road).
Testing with an 'avalanche probe' to see how stable the snow is. The probe is pretty much like a tent pole that you push deep into the snow to see how far away the ground is. When you're skiing down the steep slopes at the pass you also use this to make sure the slope won't avalanche away on you (not sure what you look for - I'm not up to that stage yet!). This is where we began digging away at the snow drift to make our snow cave.
What I was doing while Shea was shoveling....I gave him some too...
Inside the snow cave the morning after. It had a roof high enough that you could sit up but you had to crawl out the entrance tunnel (so we could minimize the wind getting in). Outside that night, it dipped to -15 celsius, inside we measured it at +1! I was so warm I was almost getting claustrophobic. I woke Shea up halfway through the night to tell him I was scared and he blearily mumbled that the roof was barely 15cm of snow. If it collapsed, I'd just stand up and be just fine! When I asked what about an avalanche coming down the hill, he reminded me that it was a flat just above the hillside we were on - an impossible location for an avalanche to come from.
After our night in the mountains, we drove down to the coast for some seaside air. on the way we passed this building at the border - they've had waaaay more snow than we've had here in Whitehorse. That's a building there under all that snow. They're buried to the roof!
Down at the coast in Haines. There are glaciers here that tumble into the ocean - just gorgeous.
The day on the coast was too much for ol' Mountain Man who fell asleep in my lap during a rest on a walk. Turns out he was getting a cold - he's been off work today.
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