Team Kesslers Storm the Snowies

blutooth

New member
Well 4 of us piled in the big rig last week and embarked on what could only be described as an amazing adventure. We hit the road at noon on Friday, and after driving straight through arrived in Laramie at 3 am local time, filled the sleds and jugs and started heading up the mountain. We parked in the Friendly Store parking lot and had a 2 hour nap with a couple empty propane tanks in the camper. We needed to wait until 7 to purchase our trail permits (Wyoming allowed this to be done online in the past, but for some reason this year their computer system was down). We were the second rig up in the parking lot at Greenrock Saturday morning at 7:40. About 45 minutes later, it looked like this:
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After making sure everything was dialed in, we hit the hills. It hadn't snowed fresh in over a week, but we were able to find some great stuff - despite the number of people out on a beautiful bluebird day with a high of 35 degrees. The first stucks happened quickly on a nice hill we wound our way up.
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Once we got there the view was amazing though:
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And some of us were a little tired from the graveyard shift of driving:
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We headed in a little early to go check in at Mountain Meadow Cabins and get situated. After only 2 hours of sleep with no heat the night before, we hit the hay pretty early.

The next day brought slightly overcast skies and a strong wind up top. We decided the best way to get out the of the wind was to duck down. We headed down into 7 Fools or the South French Creek ravine. We wouldn't recommend this unless you have a pretty good idea of where you are going. Lots of snow caves have been dug down there... We again found plenty of fresh snow.
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Another good stuck:
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This is probably one of the most dangerous hills in the Snowies for Avys. It is a dirt and grass hill with lots of spread out trees. The lack of rocks on it causes it to slide easily. We were down there with low Avy conditions, and we were wearing beacons - thanks to Patches and fgsacts for letting us borrow theirs! When we were watching, a guy rode his 800 dragon RMK up, and the Dragon decided to drive itself down. When we saw the sled 4 hours later, it was about 10% of the way out of 7 Fools and missing it's entire left side and the motor was rattling around in the belly pan. We helped as best they could be they were a big group with lots of able bodies - I'm sure it was a long day for them! This picture is taken from the top of the far side which we climbed to. There are lots of extreme drop offs to watch out for!
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Down on the bottom we found a nice stump to hop off of (I rattled my head pretty good on this one):
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Timner hit it a little more even:
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After a quick meal it was time to head out of French Creek. You can never give yourself too much time to get out of that place:
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Just for grins we headed south on T trail to hit up Cinnabar and Fourlogs. We came across this abandoned settler's cabin along the trail:
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Day 3 we woke up to a sledders dream, fresh snow:
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For this day we had planned a ride with the guys from 10 High Extreme. They know the area very well, and it gave us a better sense of confidence up there. We were in no mood to stay the night out again like we did a couple years ago because of the extreme whiteout conditions. Going out was defintitely worth it. The snow was deep everywhere, from Sugarloaf to especially the backside. Sugarloaf:
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Backside:
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It was one of those days where we advise parking downhill...
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Here is Timner in a foxhole he dug starting up:
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With all the snow on day 3 came horrible visibility, blowing wind, fogging goggles, and wet clothes. Not that we were complaining, but weather like that really makes you appreciate the weather we had on day 4, more bluebird skies and no wind. Here is one of the first hills after Sugarloaf:
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Although others had already climbed the hill at Lake Marie, there were plenty of places to pick fresh tracks:
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We were the first to go to the top and keep traveling over into the backside from there. It was fresh everywhere we looked:
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The trees and snow was beautiful after the storm. The snow clung to everything:
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Your face starts to hurt from smiling after making fresh tracks every time you hit the flipper. You saw the parking lot at the beginning - trucks as far as you could see. This was Tuesday and there were MAYBE 10 trucks in the parking lot.
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A nice break up on the hill:
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The drifts were deep and firm. If you weren't careful you could get stuck facing downhill.
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We stopped for lunch at the top, which is almost always a howling wind. Today it was calm. This is right around 10,800 ft.
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The muffpot and hot dogger worked great up there. Little weiners, left over caribou steak, hot pockets, pizza rolls, all made great warm lunch meals!
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The sun was hot and reflecting but the snow wasn't melting:
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We tore up every meadow we found. They were always untracked when we got there, but....
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We made short work of that, here is what they looked like after we were done with them:
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As we got up by the Quealy Safety hut, we started exploring way back. Of course it was still completely fresh and untouched:
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We took a couple sample probes, almost all readings on the back side were between 9 and 11 feet deep:
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blutooth

New member
Day 5, the last day of riding turned out to be exactly like day 4. Calm, sunny and right around 30 degrees. Chris the owner of Mountain Meadow Cabins blew off work for a couple hours to go for a ride with us. He took us to a few spots very close but almost always untouched. here is a hill he took us to:
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And here is a nice jump we found next to the hill he took us to:
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At Chris' suggestion, he said more speed and higher up the slope:
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Chris led us through Sugarloaf and through the gap past the widowmaker to the beginning of the rollercoaster. We were the second people to see it since the storm! Here was a little drift busting gone wrong:
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Drift busting a little more successful:
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Another nice little hill that had a nasty way of sucking you off to the left if you weren't ready:
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Some drift busting up top:
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Once Chris had to head back to work we found more fresh in the trees to play in:
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Sometimes the path isn't always straight up or down but maybe across:
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The weekdays are pretty quiet up there. We got back to the parking lot early because we had a long drive ahead of us. It looked a little different than Saturday and Sunday.
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Finally loading up the rig and heading home. We just got ahead of the storm blowing through Nebraska and arrived home around 1 pm today, Thursday.
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I'm guessing all told we have about 50 hours of footage from the trip to sift through, but there are lots of great shots that I know are going to make some fantastic footage. So bear with us as we compile it and sift through everything. We should have some shorter clips ready soon from the adventure. I'm sure the other guys will post up a couple pictures as well and some short stories about the trip.

As Team Kesslers always says, "That's another one in the books."

Blutooth
 

Skylar

Super Moderator
Staff member
Awesome pics! All that powder has me drooling, the jumping has me drooling, the hill climbing, with no freaking trees in the way, has me drooling! Nice job!
 

icantsee

New member
Awesome! That place is so Extreme. Why did you guys bring the camper? With the wind , will you bring the camper again? How did that Cummins do pulling? It sucks that Youtube removed the music from your vids they always pumped me up.
 
L

lenny

Guest
I likea da no tree 2. that's it, i'm headin west sometime in my life
 

gigakessler

New member
Awesome! That place is so Extreme. Why did you guys bring the camper? With the wind , will you bring the camper again? How did that Cummins do pulling? It sucks that Youtube removed the music from your vids they always pumped me up.

The dodge is crew cab (not mega cab) so the back seat is a little tight for guys over six feet tall. Every four hours/tank of fuel the driver and copilot would switch with the two guys in the camper where we would watch movies, make food and get some sleep. It was great having the camper to relax for the long haul out there. The dodge is stock with 5.9 diesel with 325HP and 610ft lbs of torque. No probs towing....we could hold 80MPH up hills!
 

dhealy8

New member
Amazing pics guys!! Ya' all are really good with the ol' camera... and on the sleds too!! Looks like you hit it good with the fresh and during the middle of the week. The endless fresh meadows, like you said, out there are unbelievable... have to loosen the helmet cause smilin' so much!! Cant wait to see your vids.

Lenny, you can head west with us anytime, let us know, Matt and I may be headin to the Snowies in two weeks, get the Mtn Max ready and get down here!
 

hottdogdoo

New member
Blutooth, you nailed that one jump! Looks like it was a great opportunity to practice hitting a long jump like that since here in Michigan those kind are so rare. Great job taking the pics when the sleds were still in the air to show off the jumping!
 

Skylar

Super Moderator
Staff member
The dodge is crew cab (not mega cab) so the back seat is a little tight for guys over six feet tall. Every four hours/tank of fuel the driver and copilot would switch with the two guys in the camper where we would watch movies, make food and get some sleep. It was great having the camper to relax for the long haul out there. The dodge is stock with 5.9 diesel with 325HP and 610ft lbs of torque. No probs towing....we could hold 80MPH up hills!

What were you guys getting for mpg, or did you not bother to check it?
 

cuzzinolaf

Well-known member
Awesome pics. I thought you guys wouldn't be so lucky with the reports when you left. I'm glad this turned out to be an awesome trip. Can't wait to see the footage.
 

timner

New member
What were you guys getting for mpg, or did you not bother to check it?

Skylar,

We averaged 10mpg ranging in speed from 75-85 (2100-2400+ rpm). If we would have kept it under 2k rpm, I'm sure it'd be a bit better.

Not sure what our total weight was but I think the camper alone was 3k of bed weight. Blutooth could probably chime in on this.


Pics just can't capture how beautiful it was. Watch for some TK vids soon. Thanks again to Team Patches for the use of the beacons!

-Ner
 

cuzzinolaf

Well-known member
Thanks again to Team Patches for the use of the beacons!

-Ner

No problem on the beacons. Andy gave up two, I gave up one and Jay (you will meet him eventually) gave up his. We weren't using them so someone might as well. Glad you didn't need them.
 
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