Colorado Backcountry: Snow Cave Expedition - 03.17.07 - 03.18.07

Snow Cave Expedition 2007
Vail Pass, Colorado
3-17-07 to 3-18-07

Scribe: Jonathan Cherry

This was a plan that Aaron and I put together in the fall and finally made come to reality. I did a hut trip in the area last season and was fairly comfortable with the commitment.

The Start:

Aaron and I drove up separately and met at Copper to caravan to drop off my car in Red cliff. We found a road that looked like it was the right one and dropped off the car. No signs made me a little leery of getting a parking ticket or towed or something like that. But it was such a small, sleepy mountain town that I figured that paranoia was not justified. After leaving a note on the car we headed off to Vail Pass trailhead.

When we told the Parks and Rec employee what our plan was, she told us "we don't do overnight parking.", I countered with a calm explanation that I talked to the White River and Holy Cross guys and had the green light. After hearing that she said, "Oh, the overnight parking is just to the right over there."

The Mountain:
After dealing with the logistics we were finally on the mountain and rolling! Just needed to get past the snowmobile traffic and then life was all good. The trail was clear and packed down nicely so we didn’t need snowshoes. We cruised up the trail for about an hour until we reached the top of Shrine Pass. At this point, we took a left and headed up to the 10^th mountain division huts. Before departure we did research using maps, other trip reports, and Google Earth to scout out a place to cave.
We didn't need out snow shoes until we got past the huts and the trail thinned and we started falling through the top layer. So, we geared up and too a right over the ridge where we planned to dig camp. Walking in on shoes was no problem and we quickly came to a nice open meadow surrounded by semi-sparse trees. At this point we took off our packs and busted out our shovels and probe. After checking 4 or 5 spots, we finally agreed on an area that was approx 6 feed deep on the side of the meadow. All in all, it took us about 2 hours from the car to the spot where we were going to camp.

Digging Time:
OK. I did read a book about building snow caves and made a wack-ass prototype (collapsed on me) in my driveway during the historic pre x-mas blizzard of 06, so I sort of knew what I was doing. Step 1 was getting all the way down to the ground before we started to go over and dig out the sleeping area. Got that complete then started going in parallel with the ground. After I had a decent space cleared out, I focused on my sleeping area and made a great lofted cavern. At this point I turned it over to Aaron to dig his area. Aaron had never dug a cave before and I think he got a little carried away on his ceiling. As he was going at it, I sat outside and heard a semi-large "broooomph." Aaron quickly came out and said the roof cracked. We put a lot of work into this damn thing and I was gonna be pissed if it collapsed! So we went out side to chill a while and let the snow set up again. After we got a raging fire going, we cooked dinner and chilled out for a wile.The cave had about 4 hours to firm-up and it was getting dark and cold, so we decided to proceed and cap the cave. The book said this is a common mistake; people make the entrance wall too thin. So I quadrupled it and sealed the cave with blocks of snow using loose snow in between cubes like mortar and bricks. Let that set up for 30 min then went back to dig the entrance as low as possible along the ground. Because heat rises, a low entrance keeps warm air in the sleeping are of the cave.

Moving in and Sleeping:
At this point we're in good shape. The cave is PLENTY big and has not shifted anymore. We decided to commit and move our stuff into the cave. It's a little tricky to get situated when you can't really even sit up all the way, but we struggled through and got all geared up in air mattress, bivy sack and sleeping bag. I passed out first and woke up twice b/c of cold. It was not really that cold, I just naturally like my environment warmer than average. Aaron didn't wake up at all through the night. Finally I got up around 4 to piss and noticed that the door was ever sealed! Aaron half way put a back pack near the entrance, but it did nothing to seal the cave. If we did in fact seal it, I'm sure I would not have had any issue with the cold. After pissing I passed back out and slept until I could see some light coming in from the cave roof, so I knew it was quite late in the morning.

Packing up and Departure:
Aaron was already packed up in the morning, so I was getting my stuff together and some weird animal came up. It was part squirrel, part cat, part fox. Can't quite place it. My conclusion was bobcat or lynx or something! Aaron is sure it was a marmot. The jury is still out on that one.After we got all our stuff together and packs on, we headed out into a sweet glade run. 50 lb packs definitely make it more tricky to maneuver, but after getting the hang of it no problem at all. The trick is not to fall, because if you did it was hard as hell to get back on your feet. Right when we're getting close to an opening, I was cruising fast between 2 trees and failed to realize how tall my pack was. The top of my pack snagged a strong branch which threw my feet out straight and I skidded to a stop.

We made it to the road and continued down toward the car. Most of it was downhill that we could ride fast, but a few sections were flat and even up hill a little.

Finally we arrived at the car to find no ticket or any other paranoia come to being. We packed up our gear and headed off to Avon for some Pazzos Pizza to top it all off.

Conclusion:
Great trip. Proved concept and tested gear. Plus enjoyed some great riding and full sunshine.