I've had several memorable ones. One would think just one would be a learning experience, but nooo!
This was the first.
I skied the 35 mile Resurecction Trail from Hope to Cooper Landing one Christmas break when i was in college, Took it easy, with backpack and food for 4 days, staying in USFS cabins about 8 miles apart. Short daylight hours....but I'd worked much of the trail on USFS trail crew the previous summers.
17 degrees when I left Hope. Temperatures crashed the second day - by the time I got to the Devils Pass cabin (about half-way, alpine, so no firewood- fuel oil stove, but no fuel), it was still dropping. My sleeping bag was "comfort rated" to 20 below, and you know they lie about that!
The cabin had 4 bunkbeds with thin mattresses on them, I used one under me, and 3 sort of tented over me for insulation, shivering all night long. Skiing down to Juneau Creek cabin the next day warmed me up. It was still very cold, but Juneau has firewood. Three women snowmachiners were just leaving, after over-nighting there, so the cabin was toasty on my arrival.
The next day, the snow machine trail was too rough to ski, but packed, so I walked out the 10 miles or so, carrying the skies, to Gwen's Cafe in Cooper Landing. The temp there read 53 below, and it had been noticably colder up at Devils Pass. With some wind.
Note to self...Check the weather forecast , dummy!
Twice I've spent the night "sleeping" in the rocks on sheep hunts, with just my hunting gear, but not as cold as that Devils Pass night!
Once a bud and I shot a moose 2 miles back in from the truck, no established or known trails out, as it was coming on dark. By the time it was semi-dressed enough to not spoil over night, we were only able to make it about half way out before it got too dangerous to travel in deep dark, even by flashlight, and I wasn't altogether certain where we were anyway. It turned out I was spot on, but we spent the night in our light jackets, under a big dry-underneath spruce with a roaring fire just in front (lots of deadfall), in a misty rain. That one was almost comfy!
Last edited by las; 01/20/24.
