SnowCat

By: Nick Greece - Additional photos: Sam Hamilton

By KAVU

March 8^th, 2022

For the last 16 months, my wife and I have gleefully spent time with our new son, and over that time one of us would have to go on work trips here and there. We decided, with the help of an all-star family, to book a back country yurt trip that utilizes sci-fi like snow crawlers reminiscent of a vehicle capable of conquering the ice planet of Hoth to access an amazing USFS zone located in Bridgeport, California, on the east side of the Sierras, near Virginia Lakes. The Bridgeport Ranger District is defined by over one million acres in both Nevada (637,654) and California (375,721).

We booked with the High Sierra Snow Cat operation and along with family and friends, headed out for three days and two nights of deluxe snow camping. When your ride into the backcountry is a Pisten Bully Edge with OM 926 LA Mercedes Benz engine and 326HorsePower, you can bring whatever makes you smile!

From carbonated water..... to all the booze you could possibly consume.... followed by skiing, the next day obviously a KAVUday!

It is a true back country luxury to not have to care at all about how much your gear weighs.

The six of us met up with our guides, Sam and Eric, at the entrance to Virginia Lakes, off of the old 395 South around 8 am....

.....well maybe it was 9, after I was detained for a good 45 minutes by a trainee police officer for going 5 mph over the posted speed limit outside of Carson City, Nevada.

Not to be brought down by the result of a lead foot, we arrived fashionably late, loaded up, and headed into the hills.

It snowed 10 feet in the Sierras over the December holidays, but by the time we got to the Snow Cat trip in February, California had broken a record with the least amount of precipitation in 100000 years or something along those lines.

So with expectations very low for "quality of skiing", we set off to enjoy our time being catered to in the back country and looked forward to a bit of wandering around in the mountains... and maybe a few good turns if we were lucky.

High Sierra uses the Snowcat to get us and our gear into the yurt, and then each day brings you to a zone where you can ski tour for the day. Sam and Eric were eternal optimists that brought us to the best possible locations each day after having prepared breakfast, lunch, and dinner. With the fresh snow always being just around the corner we plugged away and enjoyed the epicness that is the East Side of the Sierras.

If you've never been, this is your call to action!

It is all-time from Bridgeport to Lone Pine you find something fine.

Skiing above Mono Lake and looking towards Yosemite, you feel small. Moving over the terrain slowly with a great crew is a special experience.

On day three, we headed out and back into cell service to resume our lives. But, getting a chance to spend two nights in a yurt with a great crew is a highlight for our 2022 so far.