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:
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.
Once we got there the view was amazing though:
And some of us were a little tired from the graveyard shift of driving:
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.
Another good stuck:
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!
Down on the bottom we found a nice stump to hop off of (I rattled my head pretty good on this one):
Timner hit it a little more even:
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:
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:
Day 3 we woke up to a sledders dream, fresh snow:
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:
Backside:
It was one of those days where we advise parking downhill...
Here is Timner in a foxhole he dug starting up:
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:
Although others had already climbed the hill at Lake Marie, there were plenty of places to pick fresh tracks:
We were the first to go to the top and keep traveling over into the backside from there. It was fresh everywhere we looked:
The trees and snow was beautiful after the storm. The snow clung to everything:
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.
A nice break up on the hill:
The drifts were deep and firm. If you weren't careful you could get stuck facing downhill.
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.
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!
The sun was hot and reflecting but the snow wasn't melting:
We tore up every meadow we found. They were always untracked when we got there, but....
We made short work of that, here is what they looked like after we were done with them:
As we got up by the Quealy Safety hut, we started exploring way back. Of course it was still completely fresh and untouched:
We took a couple sample probes, almost all readings on the back side were between 9 and 11 feet deep:
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.
Once we got there the view was amazing though:
And some of us were a little tired from the graveyard shift of driving:
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.
Another good stuck:
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!
Down on the bottom we found a nice stump to hop off of (I rattled my head pretty good on this one):
Timner hit it a little more even:
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:
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:
Day 3 we woke up to a sledders dream, fresh snow:
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:
Backside:
It was one of those days where we advise parking downhill...
Here is Timner in a foxhole he dug starting up:
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:
Although others had already climbed the hill at Lake Marie, there were plenty of places to pick fresh tracks:
We were the first to go to the top and keep traveling over into the backside from there. It was fresh everywhere we looked:
The trees and snow was beautiful after the storm. The snow clung to everything:
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.
A nice break up on the hill:
The drifts were deep and firm. If you weren't careful you could get stuck facing downhill.
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.
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!
The sun was hot and reflecting but the snow wasn't melting:
We tore up every meadow we found. They were always untracked when we got there, but....
We made short work of that, here is what they looked like after we were done with them:
As we got up by the Quealy Safety hut, we started exploring way back. Of course it was still completely fresh and untouched:
We took a couple sample probes, almost all readings on the back side were between 9 and 11 feet deep:
Last edited: