March 14, 2009

RMS XXII just returned from our amazing winter expeditions -- and we have so much to share with you all!

Our expedition group, led by the fearless and heroic Molly and Christopher Barnes, consisted of several seasoned campers and skiers, as well as a brave few newbies to skiing in general.  Regardless of skiing prowess, however, winter camping was something completely new for all of us.  The first few days were devoted to learning the ropes of this entirely new form of camping - how to put on our many layers of foot and hand clothing, how to build shelters to keep us warm at night, and how socks dry out much faster if they're stuffed down our pants. 

After a few days we found that the details stopped bothering us, and we were able to focus on the important parts of winter camping, such as cooking, playing games, and backcountry telemark skiing.  In between days of skinning to our next campsite, we learned techniques for not getting lost, we taught our friends Jewish songs, and we had a winter Olympics competition.  On the last morning, the boys even orchestrated a 5:30am raid of the girls' quigloos, much to their groggy displeasure. 

In addition to digging, building snow tarps, snow caves, quigloos, dugloos, and, well, just surviving in the winter environs, most expedition groups spiced up their lives by hiking to the summit (or planning to summit) various mountains in the ranges in which we skied. Mount Zion and Horseshoe were successfully summitted, while Homestake Peak remained a hopeful dream due to weather conditions. We skied up as high as we could and then took our skis off and climbed in ski boots.

We also did some crazy activities outside of the camping fundamentals.  Most of our activities had one of two purposes: getting or staying warm, or having the time of our lives in the snow. Some of our favorite games were "Penguin Relays" where we had to walk like a penguin, slide on the snow like a penguin, and carry snow "eggs" on our feet like penguins, including passing the eggs to the next person in line without breaking or dropping them. We also had fun playing classics like “duck, duck, goose” and various forms of tag.

The weather on this years' trip was one of three things.  It was either: sunny and warm, ominous looking, or dumping powder with wind to boot.  The weather was beautiful for the first few days, which made setting up our first camp much, much easier.  On the fourth night a dark cloud had appeared on the other side of the valley and seemed to be headed directly towards some of the expedition groups.  Sometime between 10 and 12 at night, the storm had reached one of the expedition groups camped up on a ridge below Horseshoe Mountain. The next twelve hours were challenging for this group. After the storm, students and instructors alike spent hours "renovating" kitchens as we waited for the storm to stop.  Finally after hours of constant wind and snowfall, the weather promptly changed; the clouds parted and the sun came out.  It was once again sunny and warm. 

While in the backcountry, skiing was our main mode of transportation. We put skins on our skis so that we could travel more easily uphill and on the flats. Skins are long rubber or synthetic strips that attach to the bottom of the ski. With the skins we could travel straight up a hill without sliding backwards. Unfortunately (or fortunately in some cases) skins prevented us from skiing forwards easily as well.

Once at our campsites, during some free time, we could skin over to the top of the “skiing hill”, take our skins off, ski down, then skin back up to the top and start over. One problem that some of us had with the free skiing was falling. A lot. This was partially due to the variable snow conditions found in the backcountry. Free skiing was always an interesting adventure. The snow was usually a couple feet tall, but had a crust layer on top. So when we were skiing down, we were skiing on top of the crust hoping that we wouldn’t break through. When we did break through one foot would be two feet deep in snow with the other foot still on top. Needless to say there were some pretty spectacular falls.

 One night at our second campsite when there was a full moon, our group had the option of a night ski. We turned our headlamps off, skied over, and skied down the hill by moonlight. It was spectacular. At our last campsite there was a cornice that had formed a sort of “half pipe” in which our group had tons of fun. 

Despite the prospects of stove-heated cabins, XXII friends, and indoor plumbing, everyone was sad to leave the winter expedition and its craziness.  Hopefully we will all have the chance to experience more of the frozen fun of winter camping in our futures.

By: Adrian Pforzheimer, Maddie "Pants" Pantalena, Ty Nimick, & Tara Moriarty,