Crusty Snow

The early morning weather was fair and balmy. Blue skies and a light breeze prompted my husband and me to plan a quick trip into the back country ranch to retrieve some supplies that we needed. I checked the weather report just to be sure there were no nasty surprises lurking beyond the mountains to the west. Everything looked perfect. Winds at the mountain-top level were forecast to be relatively light for this part of the Rocky Mountain West. We pre-flighted the old Aeronca Sedan, loaded up the dog, buckled in, and took off.

As we progressed west up a steep rocky canyon, we noticed snow beginning to plume off the ridges above us. Hmmm...the light wind forecast might be a wee bit off. We began to bounce around in the turbulence, but weren't too worried, as the wind is usually calm down in the bottom of the canyon at the ranch. The snow was beautiful, shining white in the morning sun, clinging to dark gray granite rocks on the steep terrain. Several lakes below us were completely frozen over. The ranch elevation is a thousand feet lower than our home airport, so we were sure there would be no snow there. Our valley was bare and dry when we left. That became our second little surprise.

The long Forest Service runway near the ranch had perhaps 3 inches of snow on it, but there was a bare path down the center where other airplanes had landed. The ranch strip, on the other hand, was completely snow-covered. We flew over it several times at an altitude that allowed a close look. There were numerous animal trails across the runway, and we could see dirt in the tracks. The snow couldn't be too deep. I took a deep breath, and set up for landing. We touched down and began rolling up the narrow airstrip. As the airplane slowed down, it settled deeper into the snow, which turned out to be about 6 inches deep. The hard frozen crust acted like wheel chocks, and soon the airplane came to a complete stop in spite of my attempt to keep it moving so that we could turn around. My husband had to climb out and drag the airplane's tail uphill so that I could taxi down to the end of the airstrip.

While my husband and our dog trekked down to the ranch buildings to retrieve our supplies, I scratched my head and pondered how we would get the airplane back up off the ground to fly home. I walked the entire length of the airstrip (only 1100 feet) to judge the condition of the snow. The crust was strong enough to support my weight for most of the distance. I found some weak spots and noted where they were so I could steer around them during the taxi uphill to the top of the airstrip.

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