Sleeping in The Snow (on Purpose)
By Andres A
On the last Saturday of February, a group of 7 scouts and scout parents left the Brickyard Park and Ride for the adventure of a lifetime. Snow Caves Overnight is a exciting annual experience where you hike up near Mt. Baker and build a snow cave shelter to spend the night. Unfortunately, last year the event was cancelled due to a lack of interest, so our troop hadn't been to Snow Caves Overnight in 2 years.
We first stopped in Bellingham for drinks before arriving at the Mt. Baker ski parking lot. Before we could begin making our caves, we first had to hike 1.75 miles with a 1000-foot elevation gain. With a heavy overnight pack and snowshoes it was a challenge getting up the mountain, but the views were stunning.
The hike from the parking lot passes through the area where we did our cave digging practice a couple of weeks earlier. You could still see slight changes in the snow that showed the location of some of the caves we dug up and then collapsed before leaving. Then, the trail heads up the mountain and we followed the edge of the ski area. There were some heavy winds, so we went up to see how conditions fared up the mountain. As we cleared the first ridge, we could see Mount Shuksan to our left. The skies were clear, and we could see the distinctive blue color of some of the Glaciers on Mount Shuksan. We continued up, passed snow buried parking lot that is used for different hikes, like Artist Point and Table Mountain. As we moved towards Table Mountain we got our first glimpse of Mount Baker. We found the place where we usually dig our caves. This time only one of us had been here before, the rest were novices on the cave overnight experience.
Once we made to the top some of us had a snack while others got to work right away. It can be difficult to build a snow cave. We were all working on digging our caves by 11am, and we continued working with small breaks throughout the day. The process starts fast, but the snow becomes harder as you move down and you must move the snow first out of the hole, then clear from the entrance. After a few hours, some help, and a couple pairs of gloves, and a broken shovel, everyone had a place to spend the night. We made a total of four caves, three caves had two beds, Drew and his dad built on Joseph and Andrew another one. The only one that had spent a night on a snow cave before made a cave for himself.
Not long after we finished making the caves everyone went in for the night with some warm food. I can't speak for everyone, but I just collapsed into my sleeping bag.
In the morning we had to dig ourselves out of our caves after a night of heavy snow fall. Even though I did not have a cold night, I woke up early and felt still a bit tired from digging the cave. The caves were dripping from the condensation, and we quickly packed our stuff. Joseph was eager to get down from the mountain. We packed early and started the descent around 9 am.
Saying the hike down was hard is an understatement. I was looking forward to an easy way down the mountain, but no luck. With poor visibility caused by the heavy snow fall and winds of up to 54 miles an hour we walked down the slippery slopes. At last, we made it back to the snow-covered cars where we changed out of our wet clothes and put all of our gear in the trunks, trying to remove as much snow as possible from our snowshoes, backpacks, etc. We drove to Bellingham where we celebrated our trip at Sheri's for lunch.
A quick word about Snow Cave Practice...
Before you are ready to spend the night on a show cave, you need to attend the snow cave practice, where you learn how to build a cave and try to get a good enough cave that qualifies you for the overnight trip. The hike is short, and backpacks are light this day. This year we had 7 scouts (Drew, Andrew, Joseph, Monty, Christian, Chase, and me) and 5 adults show up for the practice. We had fun while we worked on getting something that resembles a cave fit for sleeping. You do not have to complete the cave, but you need to be close to done to qualify. The day had great conditions with clear skies, light winds, and fresh snow. We would learn afterwards that digging the actual caves up the mountain is harder than the ones at practice; maybe the snow was harder up the mountain. The Snow Cave Practice, however, doesn’t prepare you for the challenging hike or sleeping in the coolest snow shelter on the mountain.