Monday, January 23, 2012

Snowshoeing on Boulder Mountain Utah

Last Sunday, the day after we received a few inches of snow in Escalante, Utah, we ventured out to Boulder Mountain to snowshoe. The summit (almost 10,000') had grasses poking out of thin snow and we wondered if there was enough snow to snowshoe.
As the truck dropped down toward Torrey, Utah, the ground had more coverage of snow but no berms from snow plows. We strapped on our snowshoes and stepped into thigh-high snow!

Tell-taled avalanche warnings abounded: slabs of powdery snow broke off; spaces between snow layers when we dug holes, that "woomff" sound as clomped through fields; bottomless holes while poling; mounds of tall wind-blown snow to cross.
We kept close to trees and boulders but when on a mountain, you gotta go up. The snow continued to settled under our shoes but we wanted a work-out and up we went. No major slides only lots of snowballs that rolled down from our wakes.
It's snowing again but we'll wait until the snow settles (at least 24 hours) until we climb on Boulder Mountain again.