Swept up in a Trapline Avalanche

It started snowing during the night and we awoke to 3 feet of fresh powder in the yard. The wind hadn’t whipped the snow into drifts.

- George Michaud

 It was that deep, the kind of fluffy powder that gets skiers excited. It didn’t excite me in the least because I would be spending my day breaking trail up to the Hog Park trapline, a string of traps on the continental divide at almost 10,000 feet. I was the only one crazy enough to run a line up there.

We lived at 8,500 feet, and I was able to just drive out of the yard onto the trail up to the trapline.

After breakfast, I dug out the snow machine and tied my pack basket and wooden framed snowshoes to the machine. I tried sitting as I drove but it was impossible to see anything with the snow blowing over the windshield. As soon as I gave it any gas, the snow billowed and my glasses were packed.

I could get really stuck really easily on either side, and I was wallowing along like a blind hog.

I stopped to clear the snow from my glasses, and this only created another problem as the machine literally sank in the deep snow. I would have to drive standing, going slow but not so slow that I would get stuck.

No doubt about it, this was going to be a fun day on the trapline.

The trail up to Hog Park went through Twisty Park where I also had traps to check. The first set—a leaning pole held a fox. I don’t know how the No. 1 muskrat trap I had set for marten held a big fox, but there it was.

I hadn’t expected to catch a fox and there wasn’t room for one in the basket because of all of the equipment, traps, lure and bait. I had to strap it to the back of the seat, which meant I would have to wear the pack basket.

I set out again with the basket strapped on, trying to maintain balance on the machine while standing up. This would have been easier if there hadn’t been 3 feet of fresh powder on the trail. The farther I traveled up the mountain, the deeper the snow got.