Bruce Allan, Travis Johnson and I skiied into Ghost Ridge which is just west of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Barlow Pass Sno-Park. We skied in on Saturday morning and found a good spot to build snow caves about 12:30 pm. Bruce and I commenced digging while Travis set up his tent and relaxed. The weather was grey with a few glimpses of Sun. Temps were about 32 degrees.
Bruce and I dug till about 3:30 when we decided that we should go to plan B ...sleep in tents. The primary lesson learned is that building a snow cave goes much faster with two people. You need a mole to do the inside work and someone to keep moving material out of the way. There is also the safety factor. It gets pretty claustrophobic when your digging through all of that snow and things get tight. We also were deeper than we needed to be. When we measured our roofs were 4 feet thick. Two or three feet would have been enough.
So lessons were learned. Bruce and I set up our tents and we started cooking in the nice cooking area that Travis had made for us. Saturday morning dawned clear and bright and about 32 degrees. No wind and Mt Hood was magnificent from that vantage point. After an easy ski out were headed up early.
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