TR: Buttler fork Igloo

[Joe Gardner]

Heather and I decided to go build an igloo and spend the night up butler fork in big cottonwood canyon, we built our igloo on the side of a hill near the dog lake / desolation lake fork. Temperature at time of departure from SLC was 61 degrees, we used the air conditioner on the drive up the canyon... the snow was wet, and heavy, classic spring conditions.

Heather making her way up:


Me in my glacier goggles, it was a nice and sunny day, temps in the low 40's very little wind:


Really wet snow:


Self shot of Heather:


Heather going over the bridge:


Our destination! Dog lake to the left, Desolation to the right:


Snow pile done, starting to dig out the inside:


Heather digging out the Iglo:


All done! About the size of a good 3 man tent! We laid down a tarp, zipped our bags together and slept on two full size thermarests for insulation:


The view from inside:


Lunch!


We emptied our bags in the Igloo and retreated back to the car... to get our snowboards and snowboard gear:


I took the helmet cam with us, and recorded the descent back, quite a ride! I'll get some video footage together in the near future... :D

[Alex]

Woah dude, that looks classic! Thanks for all the progress shots and TR. When did you do this? Looks gorgeous up there!

How warm was it in the Igloo?

[Joe Gardner]

Spent last night there!

We are thinking of spending another night up there this week if it really dumps up there, the location is perfect for hitting all the powder bowls above and around dog and desolation lakes.

[Alex]

Make sure to post the video. What camera did you use to record the video?

[Joe Gardner]

Will do, used a POV.1, I got some great footage of Heather making her way down the trail, the section over the bridge and next to the waterfall was sketchy, cloud cover kept the trail icy with spots of slush...

[Sombeech]

Excellent. That looked like a lot of fun.

[Joe Gardner]

It was fun, heres a video tour of the snow cave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Hp4M0iN08

[Alex]

I watched your videos Joe, that looks awesome. Thanks for that Igloo video. How long did it take you to build it? How warm was it inside?

[Joe Gardner]

I watched your videos Joe, that looks awesome. Thanks for that Igloo video. How long did it take you to build it? How warm was it inside?

About 5hrs to pile up the snow, dig it out and do the finishing touches. First snow cave I built in 14 years! :D

Temp was one or two degrees above freezing on the inside, 10 - 15 colder outside.

[Alex]

Well, I went looking for your cave today, but my kid couldn't make it too far up so we had to turn around :(

We made it to this place:

And turned back. Thanks for a TR, got me out of the house!

It was awesome up there today, nice snow was coming down, no one was around. Great hike.

[Alex]

[Joe Gardner]

Cool! You were so close to our igloo, about 200' away from where the trail comes out of the tunnel of trees and into the aspens. On the left, 1/3rd of the way up the hill.

Your boy looks like he had fun! I like that last picture, cool little cave there for a guy of his size! :D

[Alex]

He had fun for the first 30 minutes, then started whining so we had to turn back. Do you know how deep that cave is that he was standing by?

My wife and kid turned back at the bridge, I kept going forward to see if I could find the Igloo, but decided to turn back right at the fork by the aspens. I guess I better head back up there to approve the Igloo

[marc olivares]

joe, you and heather do some fun stuff together. hope you appreciate it.
youre a lucky guy

hey Alex, lets take the little guys up there. with this new snow it should be fun!

[Alex]

When are you thinking? This week I am not home until 6:30pm Except Friday.