Snow Caving Campout

On Friday Jan. 29 2010 troop 849 went snow caving. We left at 9:00 a.m. from the church and soon arrived at White River West Sno-Park on the South Face of Mt. Hood . We got into groups of 3 and got to work on digging snow caves into a deep snow bank not far from the parking lot. There were 4 snow caves and a fort. The teachers made the fort and were very cold that night. The snow caves on the other hand were very warm. There were 9 deacons, 5 adults, and 5 teachers that attended the trip. At around 6:00 p.m., after a long day of digging snow we had dinner. Then the deacons and teachers played a game of commando. The adults struggled to build a camp fire, but finally succeeded with the creative use of cardboard and some white gas. After the camp fire we went to bed.

The next day we woke up and had breakfast. After breakfast we put all our stuff in the cars, and built tunnels connecting the snow caves. Then the deacons went sledding. We found a hill with a ramp at the bottom. We tried to make the ramp wider and the path smoother. Adam Olsen had many attempts to land on his feet after he went off the ramp. Just about everyone got some great jumps off the ramp and there were a few bumps and bruises, but no one got hurt. After we finished sledding we went back to the cars and took some pictures.

Before we headed home, we tried to break the snow caves. Even though we jumped up and down on them, Ryan Simmons was the only one to barely break through. After that we got in the cars and left at around 12:00 p.m. to go home. We got back to the church at around 2:15 p.m. and unpacked the cars. Then we got our stuff and went home. What a fun and exciting trip! (By Troop Historian: Brandon Springer)

Sledding Trip 2010

We went up to White River West Snow Park to do some sledding and tubing, and to build mounds for snow caves. Unfortunately, one of the young women who came up with us went over a jump accidentally, and landed on her head. Her dad was there and decided to err on the side of caution, so we immobilized her and waited for an ambulance to take her the hospital. It gave our trip a more somber air, so we didn't get much sledding done.

There was some hot chocolate, and some sitting in cars with cold feet, and some great fun.