Patrick Armstrong

The Log of a Snow Survey: Skiing and Working in a Mountain Winter World Patrick Armstrong

Mountain snow is the Western United States' greatest fresh water reservoir.

The men and women measuring this resource in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California regularly ski across 12,000 foot passes and at night must dig into rock and log cabins for shelter. On these monthly survey trips they will often ski over 100 miles and climb and descend 25,000 to 30,000 feet along the spine of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In this actual account of a snow survey trip Armstrong covers many pertinent and practical subjects which range from safe winter travel on skis, practical avalanche assessment and avoidance, bird life and wildlife found high in the mountains in winter, cooking on and maintaining wood burning cook stoves and a short history of these surveys. It includes many humorous incidents and some deadly incidents.

The Sierra Nevada snow surveyors travel through some of the most stunning mountain terrain found anywhere in the world. Winter is indeed a wild and beautiful season high in the mountains. It has its obvious dangers and it has its sublime beauties. This account attempts to transport the reader into that remote winter world.