New Years Snow Camping
We went snow camping on Mt. St. Helens over new years. This was our first snow camping trip of the season, which generally means I'm feeling a little out of practice. The forecast was for fair weather, but it snowed a couple inches on us during the ski in. Traveling in stormy conditions is extra challenging with Ethan. The conditions weren't all that bad, but a hungry six year old works on a different fun scale. It's interesting to note that they can easily turn what should be type I fun into type II fun for everyone.
We stopped at tree line to make camp. The snow evenutally let up and we spent the evening custructing our snow camp. Linette and Ethan did almost all the digging to make a snow cave, and I ran the stove and melted snow. We slept soundly in our cave, and new years morning came with a beautiful sunrise.
After a liesurely morning we skinned a thousand feet or so up the ridge. I dug a quick pit and found some very shallow but unstable layers, so we hiked back down the ridge before skiing some mellow terrain back to camp to pack up.
I was trying out some old liners in my boots and they were not working out. The ski back to the car was extremely painful and pretty much destroyed my big toenails. Lesson learned.
