 | | Ah, another year, another night in the gym. After 10+ years it still doesn't get old.
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 | | The buses dropping us off, a mile south of Deer Mtn or so.
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 | | Before we do anything I have the group pound snow. Kinda like grapes, but a whole lot colder. This way the snow will compress and refreeze by the time we need to cut blocks.
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 | | Luigi digging a trench. He's one of crazy types that doesn't pack a tent for the snow. I don't blame him, those things are heavy and unneccessary.
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 | | This is how we anchor tents in the snow. Bury the stick and you're set. In the morning just cut the fishing line!
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 | | Luigi ditched his original hole and started anew in the snow melt around a tree. The hole had already been started there, but it's harder/ice.
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 | | This would be me huffing and puffing to the top. And I thought it was steep last year!
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 | | Deer Mountain was partly blown away during an eruption in the not too distant geological past. There are two little peaklets on it.
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 | | This part looks worse than it is, but that's the highest point of Deer Mtn.
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 | | Going down is harder than going up, not muscle difficult, more technical with a potential for falling and going boom.
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 | | Pulling up blocks is easy to do, but it's hard work!
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 | | Jamie with a snow saw cutting blocks out of the packed snow.
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 | | Our snow kitchen coming together!
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 | | Tom Ryan making his way into my completed domecile. I don't bring a tent on these trips either : )
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 | | After the kitchen it's imperative that we make a igloo. Yeah, for survival lesson time. That's another way to saw Lance needs a place to sleep.
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 | | Dinner starts early so we can have light while we eat.
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 | | Bust out the drinks, kick back, and enjoy the company!
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 | | Sunday morning- we have to break down everything we made. You never know when some punk has a Bud, goes off trail on his snowmobile, hits our stuff, and sues everyone in sight for his breaking the law and lack of attention.
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 | | I love this section. Yeah it's a pain to do and hard to find exactly right, but we find it every other year. Sliding down with packs saves effort and is real fun!
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 | | Ok, it's a 2 hour hike back, we gotta get moving!
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 | | These are Doug Provin's pictures, here's one of his artsy shots during the trip.
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 | | Almost there gang, one of the few flat sections on my trip.
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 | | Artist at work. This is just a few yards from the trail head.
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 | | The happy and accomplished crew. Well done 2010!
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 | | 2010 was a decent snow year. One year out of every 5 isn't so good with dirt poking through.
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