October | 2011 | tastier frogs

Nevada is having a terrific time!

In October we returned to remove the cameras. The forecast was for snow. Trace amounts and warmer temps and rain prior to our trip. I believe when I last checked NOAA the forecast was for light snow and rain low of 28 high of 32. Seemed fine, cold, but fine we were packed for cold weather. We started walking in and it quickly began snowing. We were 1500′ and 3mi shy of our camp. On the way in we passed a couple headed out early. They told us there was some snow on the ground in the basin where we were headed. We past two more parties on their way out. One was a solo ultralight hiker who was unprepared to sleep on snow. He was forfeiting a larger trip to the weather. We next past a couple of photographers who were leaving because they wanted blue sky and sun. The weather was getting worse now, but by tomorrow it would clear up into a spectacular day.

View of Windy from trail head.

However, the weather they were evading was becoming heavy snow and all three parties seemed like rational folks who had decided it was in their best interest to get out. It was that thought that began to scare me. Were we making a bad decision? Nevada was fine with the snow storm we were walking into. We had all the gear we needed. We talk for a while. I let her know that I was fine leaving the cameras in for the winter and heading back to town for a room. She reassured me that we were prepared for snow. We ended up eating some trail mix and moving on to camp.

We got to camp and set up the the lunar duo just as it began to snow.

Right after we set the tent up it really started coming down.

So, we got into the tent and played cards.

Once the snow let up, Nevada made us a snow sherpa. He stayed at camp drinking tea.

We chose the first camp we saw in the basin and set up quick. Just as we did the snow picked up again. The temps were in the high 20’s and we were both cold. For dinner we had tortellinis in a spicy herbed broth. We cooked it on our new stove and pot-stand. We were getting suspicious that our old (10yr?) Don Johnson photon stove wasn’t preforming as well as it use to. So we built a new one. We chose Scott Henderson’s open chimney design. It seems to work fine. It takes longer (1’40”) to boil, but we’ve got plenty of time in the woods and we’re talking like two more minutes. I like the open top design which aides in filling it with fuel and in warmer conditions it works without a primer pan (we needed the primer pan in the snow). We also built a pot-stand out of titanium bicycle spokes. Fancy. It’s really cool as it folds flat for storage in our cook pot taking up less space.

The new stove and stand atop kitchen rock. It’s burning and you can see the alcohol is boiling in the stove. We needed to prime the pan to get it started in the freezing weather though.

After dinner we retreated to the tent and tried to sleep. It was a cold night. We have Big Agnes inflatable insulated pads. We love these dearly. They’re much heavier than our Z-rests, but so much more comfortable. We really can’t knock the extra weight as we love the comfort they afford. That said, they preformed poorly on the snow. I was cold in my 35° bag. N was comfy in her 15° bag, but could feel the cold ground coming through the Big Agnes. At some point in the middle of the night I got out and fetched the butt pads (old Z-rest cut into seats for sitting) and stuffed them under the Big Agnes. That helped along with all the layers we had on and we made it through the night.

The next day some the sun came out and lit up some larches up the slope from our camp. We made breakfast and headed out to retrieve the cameras. The weather stayed clear and we made good time to the cameras.

Sun or no, it got cold. Let’s hear it for layers and warm blood!

Getting ready to go cross country for the cameras.

Well as you know (spoiler alert from September) Camera one took no shots as it was turned off. We found it fairly quick as it had only been five weeks since we’d been here. When we felt close we flipped on the gps and found them right away. Walking on the snow in the morning was easy. It softened up by afternoon and was more of a trudge back to camp. We got back and packed up camp and headed back to town and stayed in a hotel and dried out our gear. The Lunar Duo is a great lightweight (39 oz) single wall. Being a single wall it has a bit of condensation. Usually not a problem if we can keep the vestibule open (warmer calm nights), but this night it just froze. Likewise, our Marmot down bags had a bit of condensation from our heads being tucked in all night. Regardless, we dried out and drove back to home the next day.

Here’s the highlights from camera two.