Indian Heaven overnighter 5.13-14.2018

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drm
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Re: Indian Heaven overnighter 5.13-14.2018

Post by drm » May 21st, 2018, 6:34 am

You would have to have the ice axe in your hands when you went in. If it was on your pack, it would be very hard to get to, given how getting wedged in is the problem.

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romann
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Re: Indian Heaven overnighter 5.13-14.2018

Post by romann » May 21st, 2018, 6:58 am

This may be harder to do, if one unexpectedly broke through, to not drop ice ax from hand.. It is very specific scenario, the hole has to be small enough to get a person wedged, but not too small to just posthole & stay on top. One would also have hard time climbing out with a backpack on. It is "perfect" unlucky scenario, less likely but it might happen.

I think in the end, it comes to every person decide for themselves if rewards of the activity worth the risks. Same as with climbing, snorkeling or even driving, "perfect accident" may happen anytime, even if you do it right. It's also true that with more practice one learns to assess/mitigate the situation and greatly reduce chance of something happening. Imho, important part is to stay within comfort zone and experience will come over time.

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drm
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Re: Indian Heaven overnighter 5.13-14.2018

Post by drm » May 22nd, 2018, 3:41 pm

I certainly don't want to discourage people with the requisite skill and experience from going out there. But your "perfect" accident isn't all that rare. Solo travelers on snow in the spring do fall into holes that they can't get out of on occasion. I've read of numerous such stories, which probably works out to 1 out of every zillion wilderness traveler. But it does happen. I'm more interested that people without the experience know about it.

Meanwhile, I expect to do a snow trip next weekend. I don't know if it will be solo or not, but being solo won't stop me. I typically do 2 or 3 every spring (mostly solo) and over all my years have never had a dangerous experience with a snow hole/bridge. Just know the risks and watch yourself (speaking generally and not to Romann who does know the risks).

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romann
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Re: Indian Heaven overnighter 5.13-14.2018

Post by romann » May 22nd, 2018, 11:03 pm

All good points Dean, I agree with you. This discussion must happen or someone new may take my words about "walk in the park" almost literally (I didn't give it a lot of thought). The purpose of it is to give him/her a fair picture, all pros and cons, so they know what to expect out there.

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Re: Indian Heaven overnighter 5.13-14.2018

Post by JerDerv » June 5th, 2018, 7:00 am

Wow, amazing photos. Thanks for sharing! Im not familiar with the area, how much of that snow do you think will be left by this weekend? I was really hoping to take Thomas lake trail head to blue lake friday, i don't have the equipment or experience to try and gamble with the snow. Really want to backpack the area when the mosquito are not in full swing. Any advice is appreciated, thanks again for sharing your trip and pictures, looks like an awesome area.

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drm
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Re: Indian Heaven overnighter 5.13-14.2018

Post by drm » June 5th, 2018, 9:35 am

You pretty much have to deal with some snow to get in before the mosquitoes because by the time the whole place is snowfree, there are already mosquitoes down low, and they will follow you up even if the water up there is too cold for them to breed there. The window for early snowfree and mosquito free Indian Heaven is narrow and almost nonexistent. I usually snowshoe to one of the upper lakes in late June to avoid them. That seems to be the sweet spot most years and this is a fairly average year wrt snowpack.

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