Jaxx
04-04-2008, 12:49 PM
My Dad and I went snowshoeing up Provo canyon just past Sundance at the Aspen Grove TH. The snow wasn't shoeable so we ended up not putting them on at all, until I put them on on our summit attempt, but it was futile.
We start at the regular trail head and then make our way to the road and then take a pretty steep hill for a few hundred feet up to the regular hiking trail. We had brought some tarps for sleds but the south facing hill that was about 3 ft deep two weeks ago only had patches of snow so we couldn't sled down that. So this time we decided to try to summit the little hill that we usually just hike past so we could use our ghetto fabulous sleds.
It took us about an hour to get to our stopping point. We wanted to summit but it was getting dark and I wasn't making very good progress. I got to a spot that was probably in the 40-50 degree range and when I would step the icy crust would break and I would sink to about mid thigh. I tried everything to get back up on the crust without breaking it including the beached whale and putting on my snowshoes for more weight distribution. Nothing worked so we decided to start our run from there.
The tarps don't make very good sleds. We did some sledding a couple of weeks ago just on our ski pants and it was awesome. Even at the steep angle and the extremely icy snow the tarp would slow us down. So if you try this it needs to be something slicker than a tarp. I think the tarp was also folding up making little fins that were slowing us down.
If we get another chance I will probably just lug up a cheap sled, I may not make it back from that though haha.
The end totals were that we hiked about .8 miles and went up 1240 feet. Very fun time! Sorry no pictars
On second thought mabey I should have put this in the hiking forum. We didn't put on our snowshoes but we were hiking in the snow, whatevs.
We start at the regular trail head and then make our way to the road and then take a pretty steep hill for a few hundred feet up to the regular hiking trail. We had brought some tarps for sleds but the south facing hill that was about 3 ft deep two weeks ago only had patches of snow so we couldn't sled down that. So this time we decided to try to summit the little hill that we usually just hike past so we could use our ghetto fabulous sleds.
It took us about an hour to get to our stopping point. We wanted to summit but it was getting dark and I wasn't making very good progress. I got to a spot that was probably in the 40-50 degree range and when I would step the icy crust would break and I would sink to about mid thigh. I tried everything to get back up on the crust without breaking it including the beached whale and putting on my snowshoes for more weight distribution. Nothing worked so we decided to start our run from there.
The tarps don't make very good sleds. We did some sledding a couple of weeks ago just on our ski pants and it was awesome. Even at the steep angle and the extremely icy snow the tarp would slow us down. So if you try this it needs to be something slicker than a tarp. I think the tarp was also folding up making little fins that were slowing us down.
If we get another chance I will probably just lug up a cheap sled, I may not make it back from that though haha.
The end totals were that we hiked about .8 miles and went up 1240 feet. Very fun time! Sorry no pictars
On second thought mabey I should have put this in the hiking forum. We didn't put on our snowshoes but we were hiking in the snow, whatevs.