Belaying a snowmobile

[FernieHawk]

Anyone have any experience belaying a snowmobile, such as over a 20-40 foot waterfall in a creek drainage?

I have been checking out a possible loop in the Flathead area. I've been part way down this particular long creek drainage and while the overall slope is pretty reasonable there could be some steeper drops that might require a belay. I have rock and Ice climbing rope experience but I've never tried belaying a sled.

 

[ferniesnow]

Colin, I'm guessing the big aspect going against you might be the low snow levels down in the Flathead. We had a nasty waterfall going into Zipper Mouth Creek in the upper Elk Valley. Couldn't get up the creek until mid/late February in most years as the snow level was low and the rocks were too big. We always had doubt about one particular waterfall. Would we have enough snow to shovel to cover the rock/ice going up? It may have been 20' but it was a challenge. No problem coming out but definitely lots of challenges going in. Every year we made it but we sure shovelled a lot of snow and waited while it settled, repacked for the next sled and waited, until everybody was up. Like I said, no trouble on the way out (after the last sled, we would repack the trail and it was great coming out), just a lot of work going in.

It is always good to be prepared and belaying sounds interesting but I was never in a situation that required that.

 

[Teth-Air]

Sounds like a fun way to spend a day. Just don't start too late in the day. I think the challenge will be finding good anchor points where you need them. A straight drop with the ideal bench at the top would be fairly easy. Lots of outcrops and rocky ledges would make it difficult. You could use the sled as a winch like the video I posted?

https://specifiedtechnicalsales-my....dIpOli6PokT5AB2Gj_2KsuhsLioyf5uRryaw?e=spOZSy

 

[snopro]

Why would you do this? Lol

 

[Summitric]

Colin, I'm guessing the big aspect going against you might be the low snow levels down in the Flathead. We had a nasty waterfall going into Zipper Mouth Creek in the upper Elk Valley. Couldn't get up the creek until mid/late February in most years as the snow level was low and the rocks were too big. We always had doubt about one particular waterfall. Would we have enough snow to shovel to cover the rock/ice going up? It may have been 20' but it was a challenge. No problem coming out but definitely lots of challenges going in. Every year we made it but we sure shovelled a lot of snow and waited while it settled, repacked for the next sled and waited, until everybody was up. Like I said, no trouble on the way out (after the last sled, we would repack the trail and it was great coming out), just a lot of work going in.

It is always good to be prepared and belaying sounds interesting but I was never in a situation that required that.

A good way to do this without shovelling too much is put spruce or pine bows on the rocks, then throw a little snow on them... works well and holds the snow in place

 

[FernieHawk]

Why would you do this? Lol

Cause I’m an Outlier...lol.

Actually we have done many adventurous drainage runs in the past but not a lot lately. There are actually two that I would like to explore just so I know they are doable without to much avalanche risk and have them in our quiver for the future. Looks OK on Google Earth but you never know. We always bring snow shoes and ski poles on these type of adventures just in case a long walk is required.

 

[FernieHawk]

Sounds like a fun way to spend a day. Just don't start too late in the day. I think the challenge will be finding good anchor points where you need them. A straight drop with the ideal bench at the top would be fairly easy. Lots of outcrops and rocky ledges would make it difficult. You could use the sled as a winch like the video I posted?

https://specifiedtechnicalsales-my....dIpOli6PokT5AB2Gj_2KsuhsLioyf5uRryaw?e=spOZSy

Yes...I definitely had your video in mind as a possibility.

 

[ferniesnow]

A good way to do this without shovelling too much is put spruce or pine bows on the rocks, then throw a little snow on them... works well and holds the snow in place

The objective was to get to the camera man's position. That's a lot of pine/spruce bows Ric! A sky hook would have been ideal. Push most of the snow from the top and have a beer, smoke, or lunch while it sets up! Gotta work hard to get into some of the honey holes!

 

[kimrick]

Always,, Always remember......

Bottom to the top first......

Never top down.....

Well unless you have unlimited bucks for a recovery....

Rent the Heli and fly the course up and map it out in your head.

Goggle suck you in earth not always what it seems..

Good luck and have fun...

 

[SUMMIT TREE]

Theres been a few times I wondered if a small drone might be Handy to go do some scouting. Maybe not always the best perspective, but might give a guy useful information. You can get pretty small drones these days that wouldn’t be to bad to Haul around.

 

[FernieHawk]

Always,, Always remember......

Bottom to the top first......

Never top down.....

Well unless you have unlimited bucks for a recovery....

Rent the Heli and fly the course up and map it out in your head.

Goggle suck you in earth not always what it seems..

Good luck and have fun...

Yes...that is also our motto...explore uphill. Once you drop down something you can’t climb back up you gotta keep going and hope you don’t run into anything impassable.

I was planning on trying next year later in the season...probably won’t even do it at all but I thought it might be interesting to find out if anyone has belayed a sled. I might try it out in the next week or two...somewhere with easy access...try and develop a good safe technique.

 

[Rotax_Kid]

We sorta had to do this a number of years ago to get a Nytro which wouldn't run out of 3 sisters and we were past the pearly gates. That was not a day I would recommend anyone chose to try repeat. By the end of the day we were so tired and mentally frustrated. I towed the machine out with my boosted 1200. Was a blur at the time, but looking at the GPS logs to figure out where we were after the fact, found out I pulled him down the trail at a bit over 70mph.

 

[LUCKY 7]

Its narly up there that's for sure

We sorta had to do this a number of years ago to get a Nytro which wouldn't run out of 3 sisters and we were past the pearly gates. That was not a day I would recommend anyone chose to try repeat. By the end of the day we were so tired and mentally frustrated. I towed the machine out with my boosted 1200. Was a blur at the time, but looking at the GPS logs to figure out where we were after the fact, found out I pulled him down the trail at a bit over 70mph.

 

[tundra twin track]

Always,, Always remember......





Rent the Heli and fly the course up and map it out in your head.

X2 on that!

 

[pfi572]

Always,, Always remember......

Bottom to the top first......

Never top down.....

Well unless you have unlimited bucks for a recovery....

Rent the Heli and fly the course up and map it out in your head.

Goggle suck you in earth not always what it seems..

Good luck and have fun...

This or using a drone is another good option .

 

[Bernoff]

Your just going to be laying it upside down or end for end a few times. Sorry couldn't help myself.

 

[FernieHawk]

So nobody has ever done this? With all those Polaris out there?

My friends all ride Polaris.........I'm allowed to trash talk...Ive towed enough of them.

 

[mountianguy]

I am thinking 8 mm rescue rope a couple pulleys maybe a friction device and it should be no problem. Most of the time the biggest challenge is a good anchor but you should have plenty of trees for that. I have done this type of stuff before not because we wanted to more so cause we had too. I do have rope / rescue training so it really wasn't that hard as we had all the needed equipment, after that it is a mindset that you will have from climbing. Just remember to take lots of pics!!

 

[vanislerev]

 

[tmo1620]

https://www.cmcpro.com/wp-content/uploads/wd/products/333000_MPD_05-1024x946.png

Ya an mpd would work like a hot damn, use those lots at work for high angle rescue