Memories!

     Reading the news reports of the moisture that’s been falling on California brought back memories of Marine Corps cold weather training. There’s Marine Corp camp above Bridgeport, CA, in the Sierra Mountains. Training elevations at Bridgeport, as Marines call the base, range from 6,800 feet to more than 11,000 feet. It wasn’t cold as I remembered South Dakota winters but it was cold enough for significant snow. There were some skis but most of our movement outside of camp was on snowshoes. Excellent physical conditioning was essential. Moving with snowshoes, at elevations over a mile high, with a full pack and an M-! Rifle, which weighed 9.5lbs, was very demanding.

     Recently I saw a video clip of a man riding snowshoes down a steep slope. He did something I was never able to do when I ‘skied’ snowshoes. At the bottom of the hill he didn’t tumble in the snow as I always did. The technique was squatting on the snowshoes and then grabbing the back of them for the ride. It beat trying to snowshoe down steep slopes even with a roll in the snow.

    It would be interesting to know how much there is in Bridgeport and if there are Marines there now. The 12+” of snow here would be appropriate for snowshoes. I do have ‘bear paw’ snowshoes that I’ve used when I’m hunting in crusty snow. The Marine snowshoes were about 5’ long.

Takk for alt,

Al

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