PCESAR Winter Training 2005Sun., Mar. 06, 2005 21:46:13
Snow training with ESAR this year was an improvement since last year, yet not the ideal snow training conditions. The weather was certainly great during the trip, but preceding weeks did not receive the needed snowfall for an interesting snow cave experience.
There was very little snow on the hike in, and nothing but a frozen lake at our destination. We hiked in the from the end of the Lake Christine Trail Turnoff (#5920), accessible from Forest Service Road #59, past Lake Christine, up over the saddle by Mt. Beljica, down past Beljica Meadows, and into the Goat Lake Basin.
On the way in, we split into multiple groups based on those who wanted to climb Mt. Beljica and those who didn’t. Joe, Mike, and I went up Mt. Beljica while Aaron, Curt, Shauna, Frankie, Elizabeth, and Mike’s dad went directly to find a camping location. The ascent up Mt. Beljica was fairly simple. We found the top of the saddle and continued in a westerly direction up the mountain. It was about a four hundred foot climb over about one thousand feet from the saddle. There was little snow on this portion of the mountain, unlike the hike up to the saddle. The summit was beautiful. To the east Mt. Rainier was highly prominent, but Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams were also visible to the south. The hike back down the saddle was very quick compared to the hike up, although the fact that we left our packs at the saddle sped us up on both the ascent and the decent.
Once back at the saddle we heard radio traffic between two portions of the other team stating that they’d missed the turnoff to Beljica Meadows, our previously dedicated camping location. They had decided to continue on to Goat Lake, as it was only another 1.2 miles from the meadows. I considered this a setback not in the fact that I would have to hike farther, but in that it was a group of Team Leaders who had missed the junction. Regardless, we continued on to Goat Lake without incident.
At Goat Lake we had a snack and watched Curt build a fire. There wasn’t any more structured activity for the day, as we had already completed the hike, and there wasn’t any snow at the lake for building snow caves or igloos. We built tarp shelters. Most of the group managed to get there shelters up fine, but the girls had a little trouble with their center butterfly knot.
The evening and night were warm, and mostly spent next to the fire. Curt’s fire made a nice location to congregate at due to its intense hit and attractive glow. The temperature at this point had dropped from about 50°F to 40°F, still very warm for winter training. The sky was overcast, which contributed greatly to the continued warmth during the night. I don’t believe the temperature ever dropped below freezing, which ironically would make it the warmest training yet this season, disregarding fall leadership training.
The hike out the next morning was much like the hike in on the previous day. We split into two groups, Frankie, Elizabeth, Curt, Mike’s dad, and Shauna went up the short way, while Joe, Aaron, Mike, and I went up the saddle and to Mt. Beljica again. Aaron hadn’t climbed it yet that weekend and wanted to get up there while we were in the area.
Mt. Beljica was much clearer on the second day. In addition to Rainier, St. Helens, and Adams, Mt. Hood was easily visible in between St. Helens and Adams. On the summit, Aaron made several phone calls to girls. What a player.
Aaron practically ran the rest of the way to the trailhead, but Mike and I kept up for the most part. I arrived only about 30 seconds after he did.
The weekend was one of the most fun ESAR trainings I’ve ever attended. I attribute this to the lack of regimen and more interesting terrain. Most training is held in Pack Forest, an interesting enough forest, but it’s just a forest. There are no mountains, just some hills. We are also usually up at five in the morning and work until midnight. This training was defiantly not like that. The lack of snow was disappointing, but I did get a chance to put my snowshoes on during the hike, and the general enjoyment of the trip made up for the lack of cave digging.
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