After
my 2005 winter trip to North America's super volcano, I had a longing
within me for two years before I could again return to this winter play
land. This time I had been watching one of the park's cams and could
see that there was plenty of snow for skiing and building igloos,
bringing promises of a wonderful trip.
The
abundant snow and forming a team of two with notable outdoor writer, ski
tour and trek leader
Chris Townsend of Scotland: http://www.christownsendoutdoors.co.uk/
resulted in an experience that ended up heightening my desire to go back
again.
We
rode a Bombardier snow coach to our rented cabin where we began our
backcountry trip. The coach driver was very wonderful and filled us in
on a lot of the area's history and made a couple stops to let us
stretch our legs and catch some of the wonders of the thermal features
in the caldera.
One
of the stops was at a thermal area on the west bay of the huge lake in
the caldera. The thermal area was fairly large and had bare ground
areas that were warm enough to melt the snow off between storms. There
were also several hot pools that produced so much fog that it was hard
to get a good view of them.
After
sleeping the night in our rented room we caught another coach ride to
the trailhead to begin our backcountry trip. With the overcast skies
we had what looked like a cold day coming and we began our trip over
the main river in the area and into the low clouds that loomed ahead
of and all around us.
Crossing
the bridge brought us to a snow covered boardwalk through a huge
thermal area with bare ground which would have been impossible for us
to pull our pulks across without the board walks.
After
crossing the thermal area with it's high humidity and having cold
temperatures we found frost built up on our hair that resembled the
frost on the trees in the area.
After
traveling a half mile or so, the sun began to burn off what turned out
to be morning fog from all the thermally heated ground and pools in
the basin we were climbing out of.
We
could see the top of the hill that we were about to climb as the fog
got thinner. The hill was steep and had a cliff band that blocked us
from taking a direct route to the top. We had to go up the gully to
the right of the main hill in the skyline.
After
the sun had been burning off the fog more and with us gaining a bit
more altitude we began to get to the top of the fog. The trees still
showed signs of the ice fog but the sun was soon to do it's job and
melt it.
The
fog was burning off fast giving us views of the area we had just come
through. The billowing fog from some of the thermal features would
have made any of the turn of the century steamers jealous.
Upon
reaching the bottom of the gully we came to snow so deep that the
trail was completely buried and we started choosing our own route up
what looked to be some pretty tough terrain to ski and pull a pulk up.
We first needed to go though a band of small trees and a few fallen
logs before we had more open terrain.
On
our return trip we saw the gully that we went up and it turned out to
be more of a cirque than a gully. The cliff band was only broken in a
few places and with fallen logs and exposed rock narrowing our route
up to the cliffs enough that we found ourselves going over spruce
traps and logs.
We
picked our way through the maze while the cliff bands loomed over us
and the slope started getting steeper. At this point we would have
been better of with snowshoes so we could go strait up the steep
slope.
Upon
reaching the bottom of the cliff band the slope got steeper and
smooth.
Although
the pulks tracked well or well enough we found it hard to make the
switchback when we reached the cliff band compared to carrying a pack
and being able to do a kick turn.
We
were starting to get a pretty phenomenal view of the basin that was
earlier filled with fog but the thermal features still kept billowing
fog like so many steamships.
Two
hours after crossing the bridge at the trailhead we gained the top of
the cliff bands and got a view of the trailhead bridge and the
boardwalk below. With it taking two hours to reach this point we
headed west like a couple young men in order to make our igloo
building destination where I had built an igloo two years previous to
this.
We
were breaking through some breakable crust and sinking calve deep into
the snow below and this slowed us down some more compared to the snow
I had two years previously where I only sank in ankle deep. It slowed
us down enough and with the slow ascent of the cirque we found dark
coming too soon so we stopped to build an igloo short of our planned
destination.
We
built the igloo with sugar snow that was cold and dry but the snow did
sinter well enough that we could build the igloo.
With
all the delays and slow building time because of the sugar snow we
ended up with a marathon day of 22 hours which put us into bed at
4:00am.
We
slept in the next morning before taking a route finding and trail
breaking day trip further along our planned route with plans to return
to camp that evening for a second night in our first igloo. The route
finding was an absolute blast with the lodge pole pines and views in
the burned areas from the large fires of 1988.
We
traveled west as we had been since leaving the trailhead and we soon
came to the large meadow where our planned route took a south turn.
Several warm streams coming from hot springs were evident in the
meadow along with the main river crossing the meadow.
The
views across the meadow were phenomenal with the deep snow and sun
shinning on the hills in the distance. We saw where our route was to
take us to the top of the hills on the left of the sunlit hills that
formed the skyline.
We
traveled out into the meadow and soon came to the spot where the river
leaves the meadow and we would cross the river. The snow was deep on
the banks in most areas and would present problems for getting in and
out of the river when fording the river.
There
was one spot where the snow was not so deep on the far bank and we
shoveled the snow off the near bank in preparation for the next days
crossing. The river was flowing slow enough that it carried the snow
away slow enough and we could see it was not melting the snow very
fast.
After
an easy day of route finding, trail breaking and shoveling off the
bank we returned to our igloo for a quiet evening and an early bed
time in preparation for the next days river crossing and igloo build.
Although
it was a brisk morning, the sun was above the horizon as we loaded our
pulks and it felt good to be leaving camp for another days travel
further along our route. It sometimes feels sad to leave an igloo
I've slept in for two nights but this day held promises of further
adventures.
After
leaving the igloo we climbed a hundred feet or so through rolling and
sparsely wooded terrain which brought us to a moderately steep slope
that led to the top and the end of climbing until we reached the
second and last hill before descending into the meadow where our river
crossing would be.
The
steep slope had given us a fun ski run the day before when returning
to camp but it made it a bit of a slog when bringing our gear along.
After
crossing the top of the hill the route went mostly down and across
flats making it easy for the next mile or more. A few small meadows
with burnt trees circling them made for easy traveling.
The
second and last hill we climbed gave us a view of the hills where our
planned route went. Skiing down to the meadow with pulk in tow gave us
a great run and we soon reached our river crossing.
