Improvised Emergency Toboggan

During my epic adventure yesterday, after the first time I twisted my knee, I started thinking about self-rescue techniques that usually linger in my mind when I head out into the back country, more as an EMT rather than just a safety-conscious skier or climber. I remembered a few techniques I had read about that either left a lot of questions unanswered or required commercially built equipment to complete the package. Today, I spent it all spreading out the things I would carry for single day back country tours, ski-mountaineering tours, or multi-day skiing tours. After trial and error, I came up with my own improvised sled using the stuff I religiously carry on tours:

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What you see in this photo:
Pair of K2 AT skis with rescue holes in the tips
Pair of Black Diamond Expedition Ski Poles
Black Diamond Raven Ice Axe (even though somehow I forgot it yesterday...)
15 ft untied prussik (7 mm soon to be replaced with 6 mm cord) with a standard carabiner
Black Diamond Deploy Shovel
x2 Brooks Range Ski Straps

Not shown:
x3 more ski straps I always have in my pack for a total of 5


This is the process I came up with:

Step 1:
Align the rescue holes in the tips of my skis:

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Step 2:
Feed the prussik through the holes to it's halfway point

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Step 3:
Disassemble shovel and place underneath the tips of the skis. Thread the cord from the skis through the top holes of the shovel.

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Step 4
Cross the cord over the tops of the tips of the skis and thread them through the bottom holes of the shovel.

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Step 5
Tie a bend (a connecting knot) in the ends of the cord and clip the standard biner that was used to rack the cord into the bend created by the cord.

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Step 6
Thread ski straps through the holes in the head and end of the ice axe.

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Step 7
Lash ice axe to the tails of the skis.

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Step 8
Lash the ski poles (the patient's ski poles preferably) to the skis in the front and back of the bindings. Note: with my skis, I was able to use my ski leashes to lash the front pole to my skis.

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Step 9
Real important for your patient's well being: if your skis have them, remove their crampons!

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For day long tours, this is the extent of the gear I carry. It's not the most comfortable toboggan but it's definitely usable and pretty sturdy. If I were doing a multi-day tour, I could take the following extra steps to reduce hypothermia and further injuries:

Step 10
Lay a sleeping pad on top of your newly improvised toboggan (if yours is inflatable as is mine blowing it up would help).

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Step 11
Lay a sleeping bag onto the pad with the head somewhere close to the shovel. Note: preferably I would put the patient into the bag before putting them onto the toboggan. It would be to their benefit to get them into a warm environment (i.e. a sleeping bag) as soon as you've finished an assessment on them.

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Stay 12
Since on major tours (climbing, skiing, backpacking, etc) I carry a full 7 meter cordalette, I took the liberty to use it to lash the patient (in this case a comforter and a few t-shirts in a balaclava and ski goggles) to the toboggan utilizing the ski poles as lashing points.

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Considering I was pretty sore from yesterday and I have no life, I spent all day toying around with ideas and perfecting it to my liking. Hopefully next weekend I can find a patch of snow and a willing victim to test this out!

Skiing Mt Holly

As the saying goes, "Skiing is like sex: when it's bad...it's still good." Today was a tried and true testament to that saying. My supervisor had invited me for an assault on a peak called Mt Holly about an hour and a half north of Cedar City. Being the first time I'd get to take my skis on a back country peak of decent size (a huge change from the crevasse ridden hills of Ross Island in Antarctica) I barely hesitated to charge a nearly 12,000 ft peak. I was picked up at 0800 and we were on the road around 0830 after picking up Ben's (friend and supervisor) friend. Mt Holly is easily accessed via Elk Meadows Ski Resort which has been abandoned for quite some time. We pulled into the parking lot around 1000. We changed quickly, packed our packs, and started hiking by 1030. We could have skinned but it was just as easy (if not easier) to just hoof it for the 2 miles or so to the summit. The hike to the summit was challenging but doable. Going from 200 ft elevation to 5600 ft elevation to starting a 2+ mile hike to 11,895 ft from 10,400 ft will put anyone's lungs to the test. After a hard push up a 1/4 mile up a 40-50 degree ridge, we stood proudly atop the summit and soaked in the view of the surrounding peaks and valleys. After a 30 minute break it was time to do what we had came to this place for: to ski! I happily unstrapped my skis from my pack, locked myself into my bindings, switch my boots from walk mode to ski mode, and volunteered to bring up the rear as we skied down a small bowl on the SE side of the summit. Here's where life got fun...

I made it 100 ft down the bowl when I went from happy and free to buried head first to my shoulders in snow. I dug my self out and started to figure out what the hell had happened. I looked down and realized that my Randonee bindings had unlocked; my 'free heel' (which is supposed to be locked when skiing downhill) swinging wildly in the wind. Now, I had this problem once or twice while skiing in Antarctica...but beacuse of the crevasses on the island, there wasn't much room for carving nice turns. So if you wanted to enjoy downhill skiing, you had to gun it straight down the trail (The Castle Rock Trail to be exact). I figured when I started carving hard, my heel lock came undone. No problem, clean out the snow and lock them again. I started skiing again only to have my heel unlock again twisting my knee pretty good and face planting me, again, into the snow. Got up, regained composure, tried again. Again, twisted knee and face plant. Now I figured something big was up. I hiked down to where Ben and his friend were waiting for me. When we looked at my skis, we noticed that the person that had mounted my bindings mounted the heel lock less than a 1/4 inch to far back on my skis...far back enough where if you put a little pressure against the lock, it opens without any problem....pretty dangerous if you're skiing. So choosing not to risk tearing every ligament in my knee, I decided to hike nearly a mile to a coral at the base of the bowl where everyone was waiting for me. I quickly learned that hiking down a slope in knee to thigh deep snow is harder than hiking up a slope in shin deep snow. After an hour of cussing and sloshing through snow, I made it to the bottom only to realize through the slosh and tumble that could barely be called a descent, I lost my smaller Canon Powershot camera. Oh well. I go through roughly one a year so I figured it was time. Being at the bottom was a relief...the rest of the hike back was done mostly on skis with climbing skins. Considering that my heel lock wasn't working, I figured I was in the clear with skinning back to the truck. About 1/2 a mile into the trek, one of my skins stop sticking to my ski all together...which not many people ever think about until you realize how much your other ski runs over said skin when you're trying to move. Annoying as hell is the only phrase I can think of to describe this situation. 2 hours later, I finally managed to limp back to the truck after contouring around a knob for nearly a mile and trying to descend a few more hills.

So all in all, a day trying to ski turned into a hike from hell, a sprained knee, a reality check of a defective binding mount to my ski, a trashed climbing skin, and a missing camera with nearly 60 un-downloaded photos. There was even one moment where I was so mad I threw my skis only to quickly see through my rage at the stupidity of this act and tried to slosh down-slope after them. Luckily they nosed into a patch of soft snow a couple hundred feet away. Ben, feeling sorry for me and sore from laughing at me, had a beer waiting for me (PBR to be exact) at the truck. I downed it, changed, chucked my stuff in the back of his truck, and climbed in nearly happy to get the hell off the mountain. I was hoping to get out to ski again before June but I doubt that will happen. Right now, I need to focus on taking my skis back to the shop I had the bindings mounted, talking to them, and, if it comes down to it, buying new skis and a set of skins...which will obviously come later on in the summer...right now I'm too broke.

Like I said, when it's bad...it's still good.

Sidenote: I had plenty of photos from the day but, as stated, I lost my camera. When I get photos from Ben, I'll post them.

Week 1 back at the BLM

It was good to see everyone in the Cedar City side of wildland firefighting again. Week 1 of being a seasonal BLM employee has finally passed. Pack test, done. Sexual Harassment training, done. Refresher and orientation training out of the way. Nothing really exciting happened this week asides being back at some form of work for the first time in a couple of months. Monday is my first day back on Zion Helitack. To be honest, I can't wait but I don't know what to expect. Hopefully, this fire season will be even more fun and exciting than last season.

A Sunday Spent in the Hoodoos

I studied well into early this morning only to wake up at noon today. When I woke up, I had the urge to get outside and do something. I knew of a small amphitheater of hoodoos about a mile off the shoulder of UT Hwy 14 near it's 14th mile marker...a little over 15 miles from my apartment. So I gathered up my bibs and jacket, grabbed my skis and boots, packed my avalanche gear, and hit the road.

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

The track I set with my skis to the base of the hoodoos follows a drainage supplied by melt water that goes from the cirque created by said hoodoos, under UT 14, and onward to somewhere deep in the Dixie NF. Thinking that it would be a little bit cooler at 9,000 feet elevation I was surprised to be stripping off clothing after feeling hot just standing still. The ski in was a lot of fun weaving in and out of stands of lodge pole pine and a few aspen trees here and there. The view from the cirque were amazing...

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

I did a couple of runs, practice making some anchors with my skis, pickets, an snow and ice features, then skied back to my car. The snow was either awesome or crappy depending on how much the sun hit it. I made it back to my car a few hours later after screwing around in the cirque. With a 2.5+ m snow pack I doubt the skiing will be limited only to the spring. Hopefully I'll be able to make it further north to ski some bigger snow.

Climbing in Zion

I spent yesterday in Zion with a friend of mine from high school who's also a Law Enforcement Ranger for the park. It was good to be back in the park and climbing, something I had been looking forward to since back in Antarctica. We climbed a short 2 pitch climb rated at 5.8 called Ashtar Command by the tunnel within the park.

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

We both found it a good warm up to climbing again in the park considering both of us were pretty rusty as we later discovered muscles we had forgotten about waking up from their winter nap.