Strawberry - 11 Mayhem

[ChrisPSherwin]

I saw the Strawberry meter blowing 13-20ish, and headed out around noon. The wind was cranking when I pulled in. I suppose I was set up by 1:20 or so... and the wind just DIED. After standing around for 20 min, I decided to go and check out the marina. My car sucks in the snow, and the drive in was a wee sketchy. It's hard when you are not sure if you can stop or not. Oh, and I suppose that I made things more difficult by driving with my harness on, and also my ski boots. Did I not mention that my car is a stick? So I show up at the Marina, and there's a good chance that I won't be able to get my car out of the lot, but whatever...

I launch my 11 m kite and have a good old time, fully powered and work my way up wind. I can't tell if the wind is dying or if I'm just in a shadow...and there goes the wind. So after 20 minutes, I pack up and start to duck walk towards the marina. Collapsable pole purchase coming soon. All the ice fishers are breaking down their huts, and two snowmobiles pass me without offering a tow etc. (the snowmo guys at Strawberry River pullout were really cool) and then it starts to snow, and now I have 50 feet of visibilty max. The snowmo tracks get me back to the parking lot pretty easily, but it did get me thinking - yeah I'm bringing a compass next time. If the snowmo tracks hadn't been there, I could have overshot the marina and been totally screwed, or just aimed further left than I wanted to, and taken 4 times as long to get back via the twisting road.

Then the real adventure starts - My Jetta TDI Wagon has 3.7 inches of ground clearance, and about 10 minutes before I get to the car it starts to BLOW. 30 knots I would guess. So I throw all my stuff in the car and play "Where's the next side marker / pole?" for about 35 minutes. I work at a ski area, and drive in crappy conditions often. This goes into my top 5 most hairy 30 minute drives for sure. I just couldn't tell where I was, and did NOT want to stop the car.

Snow packed 40 was a welcome sight. Next time I'll bust out the wife's 4 Runner. Now it's time for a beer...

Chris Sherwin

[Jason Klein]

what kind of condition was the snow in?

[ChrisPSherwin]

Strawberry River Pullout had 6 or so inches of heavier, but not super sticky snow at 1pm. I would say another 3 inches had fallen by 5pm. The marina was similar, but there was 2 inches of clear slush above the ice, and then maybe 8 inches of snow on top of that. I was using my old rossi xxx skis. I'll go wider next time in similar snow. While powered, I don't think that I pushed more than 4 inches through the top layer. Any old nasty surface seems to be covered, and at the river pullout it looked like a totally untracked snowfield. I'd say that it's good snow that will grab your edges if you're not careful, but still good snow, nothing like the sticky crap falling Friday night.