Red Cone scouting 4-13-13

Patrol 14 headed up to Red Cone to close the seasonal runoff gate and check out what conditions were like. As opposed to last year, we didn't run into any downed trees, but we did run into a ton of snow. The snow started on Hall Valley Road and just got deeper as we headed up the trail.

The snow was the very fine sugar type and not the sticky wet spring stuff that allows you to grab traction. After 1.1 miles, we made it to the creek crossing, where we just couldn't make it any farther without a ton of work. As this was a scouting run, there was no need to spend the whole day out here shoveling and winching.

We turned around and decided to check out Webster Pass.

The snow over on Webster was even deeper and finer than what we had run into on Red Cone. At one point Chuck got stuck and Dave tried to pull him out and just sunk himself. Ryan then hooked up and took himself down into the trees. Apparently 2 Jeeps weren't enough to pull Chuck out. So out came the winches.

Chuck showed us a new technique I had never seen before, called the sling shot. If you can't tell from the pic, Ryan's winch was first connected to a tree in front of him, then to a tree straight back from that one, and then back to Ryan's rear end. It not only pulled the Jeep back on the trail, but it pulled it perfectly straight in the direction we were headed.

Again, we only made it 1.1 miles when the snow became too deep to continue. Looks like this year we will have to wait till June to open Red Cone. Shooting for June 29th.