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zelatore
02-03-2011, 06:03 PM
...the wonderful Weasel of...er...Jackson Hole.

Well, at least off to the airport. Still have a few hours until we actually get to Jackson.

OFFSHORE GINGER
02-03-2011, 06:21 PM
...the wonderful Weasle of...er...Jackson Hole.

Well, at least off to the airport. Still have a few hours until we actually get to Jackson. Make sure you hit the million dollar cowboy at least once and have a great trip . God i love that town. Hey i almost forgot to ask ...are you going to do any sledding (snowmobiling)out there ?

The Hedgehog
02-03-2011, 06:22 PM
...the wonderful Weasle of...er...Jackson Hole.
Well, at least off to the airport. Still have a few hours until we actually get to Jackson.

I don't want to hear about it. You are forbidden from posting anything about the trip.

It is Feb and I am handcuffed to Tn right now.

Donziweasel
02-03-2011, 06:27 PM
Bill, quit messing around, book some tickets and get your ass and Brian's ass out here. It isn't oo late, I hear there are some screaming airline deals in March. Skiing has been EPIC. Haven't been snowmobiling in a while, but going to take Don out this weekend.

Don, make sure to post here often and with many pics so Bill, Brian and Fixall will be jealous as hell...... :)

The Hedgehog
02-03-2011, 06:35 PM
Bill, quit messing around, book some tickets and get your ass and Brian's ass out here. It isn't oo late, I hear there are some screaming airline deals in March. Skiing has been EPIC. Haven't been snowmobiling in a while, but going to take Don out this weekend.
Don, make sure to post here often and with many pics so Bill, Brian and Fixall will be jealous as hell...... :)

I may be able to get my ass out there. It will be a sudden thing. I have a client waffling around on a job. If they delay, I am in. I obviously want them to delay but I may just "do them a favor" and let them move it.:wink:

BUIZILLA
02-03-2011, 07:06 PM
you guys suck :nilly:

Ghost
02-03-2011, 08:42 PM
I'd say you suck buy I'm headed for Park City in a couple weeks.

zelatore
02-03-2011, 08:49 PM
Waiting for the connecting flight in SLC. Boarding in a few minutes.

Do I plan to do any sledding??? OF COURSE I do!!!

roadtrip se
02-03-2011, 10:00 PM
Yes, that would be suckus maximus....

zelatore
02-03-2011, 11:40 PM
We have arrived. For now, let's just say hospitality is not wanting. However cell data speed is. Details to follow!

Donziweasel
02-04-2011, 08:26 AM
Mike, the whole west has had a good snow year. Park City should be great. You guys are only 3 hours away if you get the itch to see JH.

If Don was looking for snow, looks like he got it. Forecast is for 10 inches in the mountains. Already snowing on the mountains this morning.

zelatore
02-04-2011, 10:50 AM
First discovery about Jackson Hole vs. San Juan. You can get a much better breakfast in JH.

Now I have track down John as I left my pack (with all my winter gerar) in the back of his truck last night...:bonk:

BUIZILLA
02-04-2011, 11:01 AM
Don, I meant to ask you to open the lavatory dump when landing last night... my brother needs a shower.. :yes:

Donziweasel
02-04-2011, 12:57 PM
Jim, behave.

Don, I will be home around 1:00. You can also reach me at Alltrans, Inc. 307-733-1700.

mrfixxall
02-04-2011, 02:09 PM
John,,now go get don stuck;) o btw dont teach him the roll over thing after he sticks it, let him know what real snowmobiling is about lol..

Donziweasel
02-04-2011, 06:08 PM
John,,now go get don stuck;) o btw dont teach him the roll over thing after he sticks it, let him know what real snowmobiling is about lol..


Mike, don't worry, I"ll take good care of him (insert evil laugh here). Looks like a snowy weekend for sledding. See if I can find some broken powder fields with trees for contrast. Looks like tommorrow AM is the least snowiest part of the weekend, so we will take a ride tommorrow morning. Got a buddy with 2 other newbies in town going with us. Even if conditions are a little tough, better to be riding than staying home.

I'll make sure we get plenty of pics.......

I had to work today, so Don and Michelle went to explore some on thier own. I told them a good place to see a moose because Michelle has been looking for one for years and never seen one in MT, and I think she said UT.

As for Don getting stuck, we haven't had any fresh snow in a couple of weeks and then we had the -30 stuff. Everthing I think is fairly setup and hard right now. But, hell, what do I know, I haven't been out in weeks. We will try and find some nice powder for Don though. :)

zelatore
02-05-2011, 08:25 PM
No getting stuck, at least not on the sleds. We didn't exactly take on any epic powder, but it beat the hell out of the dogs we had in Canada! I think I topped BooBoo's sled out a bit under 80 on a couple straights. BTW, 2-strokes rock! :kingme:

The only 'incident' was one of the other newbies. Just a mile or so down the trail and I was following her thinking 'hey, she's hauling the mail for her first time'. About then she went around a fairly gentle turn at about 60, lifted her inside ski and went wide, and ended up facing backward with the sled half on top of her in the soft stuff. Body english was not her strong point... No harm done, I got it off her and back on the trail and we all headed on to catch up with the others. Thereafter she was a WHOLE lot more tentative in the turns though!

John wasn't happy that he couldn't find any untracked powder to play in, but considering this was the 3rd time I've ridden it was plenty good for me! He may have thought it was a saltine; we thought it was a Ritz. :yes: (apologies to Eddie Murphy)

We called it a day a bit early as it started snowing a little and blowing pretty hard. That wind would prove to be interesting soon enough.

We had gotten a little snow here at the Lazy P overnight, but only an inch or 2. Not enough to do much, although I did find a couple kids (ok, probably in their 20's, but close enough) who had looped their Excursion into the ditch on a straight stretch of road headed up to John's place. Of course, the Lazy P is at the end of a private road and there was plenty of snow laying around from earlier in the season. And he's got a nice big open field to the west of him for the wind to blow over. I think you can see where this is going - by the time we got back and headed up his road we found 3-4' drifts over the last few hundred yards. John's response? "everybody buckle up!"

If we hadn't been pulling the trailer, I think we'd have made it. As it was, we ran out of steam with maybe 100 yrds to go. Ended up unhooking the trailer and managed to get the truck the rest of the way to the house. Unfortunately, the tool we needed was one of John's tracked Argos but he's rented them all out, so we made do with his plow equipped side-by-side. Even with chains on the rear and 300 lbs in the bed it just didn't have the beans to push all that snow so it took a lot of work to clear the road enough to get the trailer out, but eventually we got it the rest of the way to the house. John then went back to attack the part of the road that had been blocked by the trailer for another hour or two. No rest for the weary.

Assuming the road doesn't drift closed overnight, Michele and I will head up to Grand Teton NP in the morning for some show shoeing, then we'll meet back at the Lazy P to catch the game.

Pics will follow; haven't downloaded the camera yet as I didn't bring my laptop with me.

And just in case I haven't said it already - John's a hell of a host! Couldn't ask for more!

Donziweasel
02-06-2011, 08:30 AM
It was a good day. A good day of snowmobiling is when every comes home without any injuries or wrecked sleds. Been a couple of weeks since we have had snow, so conditions were pretty tracked and hard packed. It was fun though. We rode probably 50 miles or so.

I have never seen our road as bad as it was. Close, but not quite that bad. We would have made it to the house, but like Don said, I was pulling two snowmobiles on a trailer. Amazing how 4 ft drifts can stop ya dead with a trailer behind you. Anyways, thanks to the Ranger and Don, we managed to dig her out and get the road cleared.

Donziweasel
02-06-2011, 02:11 PM
Oh yeah, Don and Michelle did see moose. Actually, they have seen bald eagles, elk, moose, mule deer, rocky mountain big horn sheep and coyotes.

zelatore
02-07-2011, 08:41 AM
And last night we met some nice NPS rangers instead of watching the game. One of them was nice enough to roll his sled with Michele on the back.:frown:

Donziweasel
02-07-2011, 04:54 PM
Come on now Don, tell them the whole story, it was quite the adventure.

DAULEY
02-07-2011, 05:22 PM
tell us about that elk dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MUST HAVE BEEN GREAT

mrfixxall
02-07-2011, 05:37 PM
And last night we met some nice NPS rangers instead of watching the game. One of them was nice enough to roll his sled with Michele on the back.:frown:

Hope michele is ok! Dont tell me he was trying to to do a power slide doughnut to turn around and he put it up on its side..

zelatore
02-09-2011, 07:47 PM
I didn't take many pictures on this trip, at least not many that came out well. We had snow and overcast a lot of the time, so conditions weren't great for photography, and I'm pretty much lucky if anything comes out even under the best circumstances.

First, the view from the Lazy P's guest cabin. Not too shabby.

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/viewfrombackporchofguestcabin1.jpg

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/SunsetfromLazyPguestcabin.jpg

zelatore
02-09-2011, 07:49 PM
A few shots from Saturday with the sleds...

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/JohnssledsM1000M800Yamaha1.jpg

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/lunchstop.jpg

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/laststopoftheday.jpg

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/JacksonHole2-11044.jpg

zelatore
02-09-2011, 07:53 PM
John's road after we returned from riding -

First shot is looking back over the trailer. He almost made it through the drifts.

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/Johnsdrive2.jpg

Then after an hour or two's work with the Ranger

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/Johnsdrive.jpg

zelatore
02-09-2011, 07:55 PM
And a couple shots from Sunday when we went up to Grand Teton NP for some snowshoeing.

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/GrandTetons5.jpg

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/SnowshoeingGrandTetonNP3.jpg

DAULEY
02-09-2011, 07:56 PM
wow looks like a great place to ride

zelatore
02-09-2011, 08:17 PM
So, our big adventure...


Sunday we went up to Grand Teton NP to snowshoe. A lot of the roads are closed in the winter, so we basically drove to the end of one road and took off on foot from there, planning to make a loop about 8 or 9 miles up Death Canyon trail and back along the Phelps Lake loop to the (closed) road then back up to the truck. It started off easy, in fact we just strapped the shoes to our packs and hiked the first mile or two since it was so hard-packed. Eventually we got further back into less traveled areas and started shoeing. They don’t mark their trails in the winter, so they’re nearly impossible to see under the snow, and we took a wrong turn following some cross-country ski tracks that turned out to people who were just going way up the side of a mountain so they could ski back down. No big deal though, as when we’re shoeing we’re not worried about staying on-trail much…the shoes are sort of like 4wd; you can just go wherever you want, within reason, and not worry about a trail.

Since we had our GPS with us we knew where the lake was and just turned that way. Cutting trail is harder, and I hadn’t brought my tails so I was sinking a little more than I’d like, but it wasn’t much. Michele wanted to stop for lunch, but I wanted to push on toward the lake for a better place to stop. We crossed the trail and followed it a bit, but then turned off again and went cross-country since the trail was going to take us about a mile out of our way. Looking at the GPS I could see we were running down the east side of the lake, roughly parallel to it and the trail that follows along it’s shore, but with a high ridge between us and the lake. My plan was to simply follow along at about 7000’ until the ridge tapered down then we’d hit the trail near the south-east end of the lake and take that back toward the unplowed road. Even if we missed the trail under the snow, we’d be back-stopped by the road which would be hard to miss.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out quite like that. Michele started really slowing down. I could only go about 50’ at a time, then I had to stop and wait for her. Eventually she said she was feeling nauseous and dizzy and had to sit down. We had lunch and rested for maybe 20 minutes then started again. After maybe another 30 minutes of go-wait-go-wait she told me she thought she was going to pass out and sat down with her head between her knees. This was roughly half-way through our hike, so there was no quick way back to the truck except to cut straight cross-country through some pretty rough terrain. I was starting to get a little worried because we were probably 3 hrs from getting back to the truck and it was around 2:00 already. We had planned to get back before 6 so we could go back and watch the game and have dinner with John and Boo Boo. After she’d sat for a bit she got up and immediately had to sit back down or risk blacking out or throwing up. At this point she said she thought I should call somebody. Call somebody? Who? And what would they do? Heck, we’re off-trail in the back country – do you even think we have reception?

I don’t think I’d have made the call if it had been earlier in the day, but even if she rested and started feeling better we were going to be running out of daylight in a few hours and we certainly didn’t want to be out cutting trail in the dark. Her phone had reception, so I called 911 who connected me to the rangers at the park. The asked a bunch of questions about what was going on and about her, then I gave them our exact position from the GPS and they said they’d send somebody out to help (still not sure what that help would be exactly…). I had Michele put on all the extra clothes we had and gave her my hat (she had lost her ear protector thing and was wearing a ball cap and scarf) then had her sit on one of the packs and try to eat/drink something. She wouldn’t eat though. With her as comfortable as she could be, I told her I was going to climb to the top of the ridge to see if I could see the lake or the trail so it would be easier for me to contact the rangers when they came. That was a seriously tough climb! The snow was very soft and even with the shoes on I sank to my knees and fell several times and couldn’t make the climb without stopping repeatedly on the way. Looking at the GPS, it was just under 200’ vertical, but I had to cut a pretty long side-hill to make it up as it was just too steep to get up otherwise. A little elevation combined with some soft/deep snow makes for tough going! Once up there, I still couldn’t see the lake as the trees were too heavy. I had a look around for a bit, then went back to Michele as I didn’t want to leave her alone very long.

It ended up taking far longer than expected for the rangers to get to us. I was having a hard time just sitting in one place, so I’d go off a couple hundred yards or so from time to time to keep up some body heat. (it was probably around 20 out) Michele had on more clothes than me, but was still getting pretty cold just sitting there. At one point the rangers called back and asked if I could climb to the top of the ridge again and see if I could make contact with their team in the field. It took me about 15 minutes to get up the hill, but once there we couldn’t make contact with our whistles even though they were probably within 1500 feet of us. Yeah, it’s pretty steep terrain…

As it started to get dark, I decided to build a fire and gathered up a bunch of small dead wood. I was quite pleased that I was able to get the fire going from scratch on the second match…woohoo! Boy Scouts paid off! As we’d talked to the ranger coordinating the field team a couple times by phone I never really felt like we were in trouble, but it did seem to take an awfully long time for them to find us. The fire helped Michele a lot though, and warmed her feet which were the biggest problem. We had some of those little chemical heat packs, but they didn’t work. Maybe too old, I don’t know. The problem now was finding enough small wood that I could break over my knee to keep the fire going. About every 5 minutes it seemed like I was out hunting more wood. Since we don’t carry an axe or saw, I could only get small stuff; I couldn’t even step on a limb to break it against the ground as it just sunk into the snow (about 4’ deep in this area). We also had headlamps in our packs, so we both put those on, though I was trying not to use them around the fire to preserve the batteries. We carry extra batteries as well, but I wasn’t sure how old they were even though we try to replace the spares at least once a year. I’d already switched to the back-up batteries for the GPS, and didn’t want to run into any other troubles. Oh, and did I mention that it had started snowing pretty good as it got dark?

Eventually I heard a whistle from the search team and sounded back with our whistle. I didn’t hear a return signal, but then Michele saw a light on the top of the ridge. I climbed about half way up and made contact with a ranger trying to pick a route down the hill on skis. He made it on down and started tending to Michele. She was feeling better with the fire going, but still hadn’t tried to stand in a couple hours. He asked if she had ate (not for some time) and gave her some Goo. Interestingly, we normally have some Goo in our pack for such things but had taken it out when we went to Canada because we carried the pack on the plane and it’s a sorta-liquid. She ate 2 Goos and seemed to feel better, so they put a ranger on either side of her and tied a line around her to a third to try to get her to up the hill on her own feet. I went on ahead and tried to stomp out a compacted path of snow since I was the only other one on snowshoes. That didn’t work so well; most of the time when it was soft enough for me to sink it just kept sinking. I couldn’t really make the snow firm enough to support anyone. It probably took 45 minutes to get her up the hill, but eventually they did. They did give up on the 3rd guy trying to pull with a short rope though as that didn’t work out well. I know I still fell down several times on the way up, and I think all the rangers went down at least once as well. Did I mention it was pretty tough getting up that ridge?

At the top, they put her in a sled. I think it was one of those litters they use when they air-lift people. Then they started lowering her down the other side toward the lake. They had a 180’ rope and it took I think 6 pitches to get to the bottom. And of course, it’s not like you can just lower straight down, you have to drag the sled sideways around all the trees and branches and other things in the way. It was a lot of work – one ranger was constantly pulling the sled one way or the other. Occasionally I’d help, though I probably did about 15% of the work vs what he was doing. He’d given up on using his skis since they just got in the way and was just working in his boots and sunk to his waist in the snow about half the time. I don’t know how long it took to get her back down, but it seemed like forever.

Eventually we got to the bottom where other rangers had snowmobiles waiting on the (frozen) lake. We lashed our gear on back and they took us out across the lake and eventually to the road much as I had planned to hike out. My sled was in the lead and the ranger driving was going slow and kept stopping to wait for the 2nd guy with Michele. Eventually he got to the road and went on ahead and dropped me off but it seemed to be taking forever for the second sled, then they came over the radio and said they had rolled it trying to get out through some of the tight stuff – great! The ranger I had been riding with then jumped back on his sled to go help. He stuck it in reverse and tried to whip a gangster U-turn but only got it around about half way then backed rather rapidly into the front of one to the other ranger’s trucks. Oops – sleds don’t back up all that well. I didn’t check so see if it did any damage, but he looked at it then took off to help the other guy, so I’ll assume the only damage was to his ego.

After they got her back we did the paperwork with the rangers then got in the Bronco and headed out. It was probably around 11:00 by then, so we sort of missed the game. Other than being cold (the ranger’s truck showed 3 degrees when we got there) Michele felt OK. By midnight we were back at the house and asleep, and the next morning she was ready to go out and snowshoe some more although it was snowing and windy so we didn’t actually get out.

And that was our adventure. It was good that we carried all our gear but I never felt like we were in any real danger, mostly because I had been able to make contact with the Rangers. Had I realized how long it would take them to get to us I would have built a fire much earlier and started gathering wood in the daylight – having waited that long it would have been very difficult to find enough big wood to keep it going all night if I’d had to. I also should have considered building a shelter (I have rope and a space-blanket that can be used for a tarp if needed, and in the soft snow you can use a snow shoe as a pretty good shovel to dig out a cave which insulates quite well) but again didn’t think we’d be there that long. I also should have forced her to eat something more. The hardest part was actually making the call for help, then staying in one place after the call. I really wanted to do SOMETHING but of course I couldn’t just leave her there alone. I felt bad enough leaving her for 20-30 minutes at a time to climb the ridge or go looking for firewood. If we’d been forced to spend the night, it would have been really rough, but we’d have survived. The catch is would she have been in any better shape after a night out to make it back to the car the next day? While I never doubted that I could get through, I don’t know how I would have gotten her out without the rangers’ help. A big thanks to all of them for working late; one of them was actually from WI, so he and I were both hoping the Packers were giving the Steelers a smack-down.

Oh, and thanks to the wood smoke, all our gear now smells like smoked ham.

I can only guess that between the elevation and not eating that much she just over-did it. She’s gone on hikes longer than this before, and she’s done stuff at this altitude, but I guess something about this particular combination just didn’t work for her.

She’s fine now of course; we caught the plane out of Jackson Sunday evening and she went on directly to OR for work where she’ll be until Friday afternoon when I pick her up in Sacramento. She sent me a message earlier today saying she wants to go hiking again Saturday… go figure!

Marlin275
02-09-2011, 08:54 PM
Don

That is some story . . .
I felt I was reading Call of the Wild, all over again
I know what you mean about things going bad in a hurry
when we go on long hikes
I am always trying to figure the point of return
Donzi trips are the same thing sometimes . . .

Glad you made it safe . . .

Ghost
02-10-2011, 12:57 AM
That's a bit exciting. Glad she's okay and things worked out. Sounds like you did a good job of dealing with a tough situation.

CHACHI
02-10-2011, 05:58 AM
Don, glad to hear it was a positive outcome.

Altitude and excersise can reek havoc on a body.

Ken

zelatore
02-10-2011, 10:44 AM
I look back and ask what could I have done better and what can I learn from this.

First, I should have stopped earlier for lunch. I have a bad habit of forgetting to eat when I'm doing stuff, and I tend to get annoyed when she wants to eat (what? you want to eat? again?)

Second, I should have paid more attention to her condition. I'm always a faster/stronger hiker than she is, but she always makes it and doesn't usually complain. I should have realized that when she does complain, it's not just whining but actually something wrong. We could have turned around when we stopped for lunch and although it would have been a several miles to get back, it would have been easier going.

Third, I need to update our emergency gear. We carry a lot of stuff that, frankly, I often get annoyed about having (so much weight...and we're only going on a day hike...do we really need all this stuff?). We always have extra water and food, lights, compass (2 actually), spare batteries for our lights and GPS, 50' of 5/16" rope, waterproof matches, signal whistles and mirror, a small first aid kit, knife (+ my leatherman), chemical heat packs, an extra outer shell, a hat, and probably a bunch of other stuff I can't think of off the top of my head. A couple of things that stood out - the chemical heat packs didn't work. They did get above ambient temp, but not warm enough to do any good. I'm guessing they must be 2 or 3 years old, so that might be the problem. Also, as I had mentioned, we had taken the Goo (I've been mis-spelling it, it's GU, a high-energy exercise gel with caffeine in it) out of our packs for the airlines so we didn't have that with us. In the state she was in, she didn't want to eat anything, but GU is easy - you just tear the top off and squeeze it down. Lastly, I may actually consider adding a compact folding saw to our emergency gear. Out in the snow it was really a PITA trying to find enough firewood without having any way to cut it.

mike o
02-10-2011, 10:58 AM
Quite the memorable adventure...... I see my X package summit rental in the Pic's.........:crossfing:. You never know what can happen when taking a hike in the wilderness......:kingme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GEhM2Byk7w

zelatore
02-10-2011, 04:19 PM
OK, we didn't get that close to any moose - and I don't think I need to.

We did find a number of big horn sheep that pretty much ignored us while we drove right up to them though.

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/JacksonHole2-11048.jpg

And they only have about 7000 elk around Jackson...

http://i816.photobucket.com/albums/zz85/zelatore/Jackson%20Hole%202-11/ElkRefuge5.jpg

yeller
02-11-2011, 12:03 AM
Glad you two are ok! :yes:

mike o
02-11-2011, 07:31 AM
The caption should have read Cross country skiers trapped.:crossfing: These 1800 lb animals tramp down their own paths to save body fat in winter. They packed down network of these paths in 6-8 ft of snow to fend of the wolfs who rarely mess with them unless they are sick or weak, and feed. They don't like to move off the snowmobile trails when you run into them. Thats what the stare down in the beginning was all about.:shocking: I rode 600-700 miles sledding in northern Maine last week and saw several on the trail, especially at night. A mother Moose with a calf will possible charge and stomp you to death. So.... If its a mother cow, and the ears go back, and the tuff on the neck goes up, with a snort or 2... Its time to get.:kingme: PS, :happy_bi: