This past week, my brother and I did what we had talked about for quite a while…snowshoed up to his cabin in the dead of winter. This cabin is about 90% complete. The most important thing up there is a modern woodburning stove. Water and beer was stored in the basement and dry goods in the cabin. We would pack in the meats, bread, fruit and clothing.
We are both in good condition. I have over 10 years of long course endurance training and my brother is a fitness enthusiast in the mold of what Mark Sisson would recommend. I’m 48 and he is 49. I have been encouraging him to do once every week a longer run. He also switched to boot-running for winter training. Because his mtn. bike was stolen months ago, his fitness training is just running and weights. His long run reached 10 miles early december before the Elk hunt.
Left Vegas Tuesday morning, Feb. 10th. A storm had just blown through and the closest reporting station to my brothers cabin, 8 miles away and slightly higher at 9100 feet, showed 73 inches of snow. We thought, great, we’ll see some real snow. Stopped at the sheriff’s office and checked in so that they would know my truck was going to be parked on the county road where the plowing ends and our hike would begin. My brother’s wife would contact the Sheriff’s office if she had not heard from us by Thursday night.
Started the hike at 1330. Our plan was if the going got too slow by the halfway point, we would bale-out and turn back. I had figured roughly 5 miles total, about 5 hours for the hike. That was one of many miscalculations. Overestimating our abilities too much and underestimating the conditions WAY too much, of which the most critical being the farther the hike progressed, the steeper the terrain and the deeper the snow. I had never been on snowshoes before so I had to be a quick study. Another problem was the weight. Our pack frames were between 50 and 60 pounds. I weigh 165 now (was 167 on Tuesday morning) and my brother weighed 150 then. Plus I was carrying a 9 pound Mauser.
The pace seemed ok. After the first .5 mile, I took over the lead and stayed there the rest of the way. We had to cut through unbroken snow. Leaving the truck, probably had three feet of snow, dry powder. Was shocked at how much I was sinking in every step. Probably total weight on the shoes at 240. After about four hours, my brother complained of hamstrings tightening. Slowed the pace down to 50 steps, then a quick rest, maybe a minute of a forward stretch of the hams, then forward 50 again. Temperature was dropping so had to always keep moving. Fueled up way to little. Took a break before the hike turned away from the road for the steep climb up to the cabin. Was getting dark now. Asked my brother if he wanted to turn back. No, so we went. UP to 45 degree slopes and at times over 6 feet of snow. Brutal. Switch-backed. In order to get a shoe forward, had to bend over to clear the snow away with my mitted hand. One step at a time. Fell occassionaly as a shoe would sink into a air pocket around a burried sagebrush. The heavy pack took you off ballance real easy. If you were on your back, usually had to unbuckle the pack in order to get on your feet. One time I fell and my bother tried to help me from behind. He fell backwards and then had a bad spasm. That was a bad spot we were in. I had cramped up too when I fell so here we are, both laying there in 6 feet of snow on a steep slope at night with the temperature below 10. The other really bad situation was later when we were working through a stand of Fir on a steep slope, my left shoe came off and I sunk to my waist. It was maybe 9 so dark. There was a full moon but for the most part, obscurred by cloud cover. I thought the strap had broken. Fortunately not. It was imperative to get the shoes on your feet or you were stuck, totally.
Long story short…took around 5 hours to cover the last 1.5 miles. Told my brother the only thing that matters is to make it to the cabin. When doesn’t matter. Got to the cabin around 11 at night. Have done 10 IMs plus numerous halfs and OLys. Never DNF’ed. None of those IMs compared to the level of total fatigue I had reaching the cabin.
Cabin temp was 25F. Got the stove going while my brother went to the basement for water and beer. Boots were frozen to my socks and feet. Ice around my socks. Stayed up till 3 in the morning warming up around the stove. After eating and warming up, had some beer. About the best beer I had ever had.
The next day was awesome. Warmed the cabin up to 60. Just static recovery, indoors looking out at the incredible scenery. Thursday did 2.75 hours active recovery on the snowshoes with no pack. Cut a better trail down off the mountain to the road. Returned and packed it further. Amazing the difference between snowshoeing a packed trail versus unbroken snow.
Next time we’ll do things much diferent and smarter. Our mistakes were numerous. Probably the greatest was to put ourselves into a position where a DNF pretty much guarentees death on this earth. Big difference as compared to triathlon races. 9 hours 40 minutes to cover 6.55 miles. The return on Friday took 4 hours 44 minutes.
We take for granted our fitness. Without mine there was no way I could have broken the trail for that distance and time carrying such a load. My bother said that without that boot running the past two months, there was no way he would have made it. On a previous thread I mentioned of one of my base training protocols as being boot running. One guy said it was the supidest thing he had ever heard of. Well, it saved our lives!
Here is the motionbased data for the climb.
February 10th, 2009…the day I was reborn. It’s all gravy now from here on.
day 1. That was the last thing on our mind that day. 
the stove stoked well…metal glowing red inside
my brother at his gate
active recovery…cut the new trail down for the next day out. Behind me is where the last 1.5 miles of day one began. Those sagebrush is where we worked up to get away from the really deep stuff. Nonetheless, on that steep slope, those are the big sage sticking out of three feet snow. 
static recovery day