Patrollers:
- Keith Gale (Lead)
- Wade Melcher
- John Kretschmann
- Larry Crawford
- Steve Bailey
- Vincent Von Kaenel
Friday night Keith and Wade drove Nifty up to the cabin without much of
a weather consideration. By the next morning, the cold had made the
roads more treacherous with the introduction of black ice. This said,
Larry, JK, Steve Bailey and Mariano made safe sojourn to the Summit
Ranger Station to begin the process of opening the cabin.
Because the former tenants were either exceptional clean folks, or the
Forest Service outsourced the cleaning, the cabin was in remarkable
shape. All the worker bees had to do was transport and unpack which
went remarkably smoothly. The big dilemma was the bathroom sink drain
was frozen, but the able team of Steve and Larry jumped to the challenge
and were delayed in exhulting their success. When I left on Sunday
evening, the drain was still remiss in releasing. Otherwise, we are
prepared for another season-including two bricks (AKA: NFS radios). We
will remain committed to alkaline batteries because the re-chargeables
do not last an entire day.
Departing early afternoon for Dodge, Steve, Wade, Mariano,JK and Keith
were determined to break trail along Crabtree. In fact, the trail
almost broke us. Perhaps because this was the first real storm with
snow loading (ignoring the earliest season small drop), this snow had
the frustrating characteristic of melting the first six inches or so,
creating an air gap between the warm ground and the bottom of the
snowpack. Thus, when breaking the trail, we were in reality breaking
the air gap. Complicating the crumbling air gap, was the small trees
which would catch the tip or tail of your ski. This complex pattern
created a wearisome trudge until we discovered the brilliant idea that
the road would be more conducive to travel. The idea of Auggies Run
taking us along the ridge seemed quicker than following the road, or
dropping into the bowl, provided an attractive alternative. The snow
conditions were almost optimal here when we dropped into the bowl and we
make a quick trip to Aspen Meadows. At Ridge, we broke into two groups;
JK and Mariano heading down Kelly's Cutoff and Steve, Wade and Keith
took Ridge to the connector with Trail #1. We ended up at the Crabtree
Trailhead about 5PM.
Upon returning to the cabin, immediately turning in behind us, was
Vincent. He had just landed in SFO from South Korea for his job at
Apple. Not even jet-lagged, he had made a trek to Aspen Meadows and
down Ridge. We had been following him!!! JK, Larry, Steve departed and
the remainder enjoyed Mariano's fresh crab choppino. Because the DVD
player was found non-functional, we were rendered only the TV for night
entertainment. Vince was introduced to the report and radio protocols.
He was provided a Patroller's Manual to supplement his already
considerable experience basis.
The next morning was warm-perhaps 3 degree C-creating a sticky snowpack.
This did not deter Vince as he showed stellar ski capabilities. After
a quick tutorial down Graceland, we did Rocky Road (Wade-Zig Zag is
first, right!!??) Close to the junction with Stan's Bowl, we
encountered our first public contact. A woman and her two dogs were
walking toward Rocky Road. Mariano departed upon our Gooseberry
trailhead arrival. Vince, Wade and Keith again did Crabtree via
Auggie's and out Kelly's Cutoff. We arrived at the trailhead to make
our final public contact of a couple and their dog. Because the weather
had turned so that the snow was becoming more sleet-like, we signed-out
at 3:30PM.
--Submitted by Keith Gale
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