Bear Lake Yurt - TR 2/25-2/28

[phatfreeheeler]

The Bear Lake Yurt is located just north of the Idaho/Utah border in the mountains northeast of Logan, Utah. Glen Bee who runs it, as a non-profit, is super nice and always looking for ideas to improve the now 4 year old yurt he has built. Here is their website
Bear Lake Yurt website

The trip started Friday Morning when my wife (splitboard) and I (beefy telegear) picked up the key and met a local named Richard, who offered to save us some time with a sled ride in. Yeah, we took the easy way in. (I was 2 weeks out from a pretty bad neck injury from not quite landing a 3 in the park) $50 well spent, as we got into the yurt by 11am with fresh legs and lungs. Normally it’s a 5.9 mile 1100 ft hike in on a snowmobile track.

The yurt was very nice; with 4 single bunks, a bunch of foldout cots, and a two person air mattress. It has a great little deck, which we used a bunch and a bubble in the top that you could sit in and look around. There was the usual wood stove and propane cooking with a larger stove that could be used out on the deck in warmer weather. I think the yurt would have been great for 6 adults. The two of us didn't quite keep it warm enough in the -8F nights. And I kept not waking in time to catch the fire. There was never a cloud in the sky and daytime temps were in the 30's, so the deck was very usable. The price was super reasonable at ~$170 for the 3 nights.

2/25/05 Friday – After unpacking, we decided to go have a look around at the surrounding terrain. We began hiking up toward Bloomington Peak ~2.5 miles west of the yurt. The north facing snow seemed recrystallized so we went up the nearest shoulder of the peak. It proved to be much, much longer than it looked from the bottom. The upper northeast bowl looked insanely fun with many STEEP rocky chutes. I didn’t see any that didn’t have at least small rock bands needing to be cleared. With my bad neck and only the two of us for rescue we opted to take it easy and ride the east shoulder back down. It was a long mellow slope with about 8” of creamy snow. Very fun, but we needed more steepness, so we dropped into the trees on the north side and were greeted with knee deep fluff. If the trees had been more spread out it would have been perfect. Understandably, the flat at the bottom was not the most beloved by my wife and her snowboard.

2/26/05 Saturday – The day before we had spotted some amazing terrain about 4 miles southwest of the yurt, but we weren’t really that ambitious feeling, so we decided to try the southern shoulder of Paris peak directly behind the yurt. It had little trees and looked like fun if it either corned up or had some fresh wind buff. We were hoping to make laps. It did have a cornice built up on it so we would definitely want to inspect the snowpack. I “rated” it a moderate after digging a pit and doing a simple shovel stability test. Two weak layers,(10” & 3’) but pretty stubborn to get them going. We still chose to keep it safe and not drop the main portion of the cornice. Well, we had about 2 good snow turns and then breakable death crust into sugar. Eventually, I let my speed get beyond my ability to pull my skis through the crust and I ended up tumbling. My wife showed a bit more grace than I on the board. The idea of laps died instantly and we headed back to the yurt for wine on the deck. That night, “Where’s the camera? Oh $#!%”. We lost it in our struggle through the death crust.

2/27/05 Sunday – The hunt for the Camera began around 11 and went better than expected. The death crust has the advantage of not breaking under the weight of a small digital camera. Back to the yurt and a little relaxing on the deck. Sitting there we discuss our options. Tour, relax in the sun, tour, relax in the sun, what to do. The idea of a long tour was definitely out of the question, due to time. We final get up and decide to take another stab at finding close slopes to ride. We go south to the north facing, tight trees just across the snowmobile track. The snow varies from 10” of recrystallized to nasty crusts almost as bad as the slopes the day before. The slope gradually gets steeper, and the snow more consistent and we eventually feel like we should drop and get some turns. It was a good run, despite some issues with the splitboard and icing. We did get some glop as we came out in the flats and decided to call it a day.

2/28/05 Monday hike out – With the splitboard together, heavy packs on, and the yurt clean we started our journey out the 5.9 miles of basically flat snowmobile trail. The board was so painful for my wife with much of her weight on 1 leg, but it was faster than trying to use it as a split. She has not had good luck with it when using it like AT gear. The burton system just doesn’t give her the control she needs when it is split. After a while I decided to sprint ahead and then come back for her pack. It was a very long sprint…I was tired when I reached the car…so my mind started to think of ways to make it easier. The track seemed pretty packed and my WRX has snow tires, so I drove up to get her. No problems! She must have been making good time because I only rallied less than a mile up the snowmobile track before I met her.

Our unedited pics are on our website, linked below. Some of the slopes are steeper than they look in the pics because I tipped the camera. woops!
Pics from the Trip

It was a great trip and a nice little yurt. Due to the distance of much of the steeper terrain, this yurt would be a great place for either people who don’t mind long approaches, or those with a sled or two to shuttle people in to the better areas. This is what I would do next time. I’m definitely not a proponent of snowmobiles, but I have no shame in using them to get to the goods. Even though they hadn’t had snow for 2 weeks there was plenty of good snow on shady northern aspects. This is a great yurt in an incredible area. The only minor negative for some would be the 6 or so snowmobiles coming up and tracking the area each day. Even so, there was still plenty of snow to be had.

Thanks Elitist for the beta!

[Karl Stall]

Thanks for sharing