Buried By Snowstorm

by Lou Dawson
written by Lou Dawson


Joe,Ty, and Colby's tent was slightly less covered, I think they whacked some snow off from inside during the night.

Joe,Ty, and Colby's tent was slightly less covered, I think they whacked some snow off from inside during the night.


Weather report for 14,200 feet on Denali yesterday and last night: Snow, on and off, heavy at times. Well, we got to experience one of those little Alaskan snow events everyone talks about. Yeah, this was only a hair over two feet (Andrew can brag on much more extreme shovel events), but enough to nearly bury our tents in the space of 8 hours, snowing at a rate of about 4 inches an hour. The snow came down so hard it sounded like rain on our tent. All our Hilleberg Tents held up well, though for some reason they wouldn’t take care of the shoveling, which took upwards of an hour with all of us working. The snow quit around 7:00 this morning, but not before at least six huge avalanches came within several hundred feet of camp. Weird to hear the slides roar at night, then get up in the morning and see how close you are to the runout toes of all the avalanches. It’s said that camp hardly ever gets hit with anything more than a wind blast from the slides. Okay, I’ll keep that in mind!

Lou and Louie's tent before shoveling, you can perhaps see a few guylines. The vertical object in front is my remote satphone antenna.

Lou and Louie's tent before shoveling, you can perhaps see a few guylines. The vertical object in front is my remote satphone antenna.


Yesterday was a rest day due to climb to 17,200 the day before. Looks like today will be one as well, as we’d planned on climbing high again but the route to headwall appears to still have some avy danger.
During our rest day yesterday, we acquired a pile of extra rations from folks headed down the trail and home who wanted to lighten their packs. One score was a bag of pancake mix, which Louie used to make 'dutch' or 'kaiser-schmarm' out of. The project was inspired by Lisa's mother Lillian as well as Fritz Barthel's mother Huberta. Results were edible, a few sticks of butter and 1/2 pound of sugar helped.

During our rest day yesterday, we acquired a pile of extra rations from folks headed down the trail and home who wanted to lighten their packs. One score was a bag of pancake mix, which Louie used to make 'dutch' or 'kaiser-schmarm'. The project was inspired by Lisa's mother Lillian as well as Fritz Barthel's mother Huberta. Results were edible, a few sticks of butter and 1/2 pound of sugar helped.


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