Looks like a cool system but I still envision going over a steep slope and having the sled slide sideways picking up speed and rip me off the mountain side lol.
where's your sense of adventure? I could add a parachute?
We seem to both be planning a hike outside normal standards but on opposite ends of the spectrum as I have been working on a multi week hike around Death Valley, probably 150+ miles.
Death Valley - been there once in August. Not a good idea. Furnace. Using the logic of a friend who grew up in Green Bay and moved to Tuscon: you can dress for the very cold, but when it's hot, you're quickly running out of options.
Only issue with my cold weather plan is that all that gear you need is rather heavy, and although I am sure I can somehow put together a pack that will hold it all, possibly make hte food load work out with a cache at Taboose and somehwere around VVR (may need to negotiate with them to leave something for me at the end of season in a place I can access), I am not sure how well a 55-60 pound pack travels on snow shoes.
I may not need a sled to pull me straight off the mountain if I am top heavy and the ground is soft. Last summer, just below Forester, we came across a large snow field. Just traversing, and actually dropping down to a visible section of trail when I broke through the snow with one leg. Nothing below, deep hole, and my body swung around with the pack wanting to pull me further around and downhill. Leg in the hole was jammed against a large boulder (the reason for the sub-snow thaw) and if it had not been for my kids helping to pull me back around, I have no idea what I could have done to get out of that position. Could not pull me up, my leg was being twisted pretty badly. I could have cut the pack, and later retrieved it a few hundred feet lower down
Stuff like that moment have me wonder about the sanity of a solo trip in winter. Doubt there's going to be a lot of those "thaw holes," but running water under the snow could cause all sorts of nasty surprises. It's not like a glacier where you fully expect those things - dangeron a trip like that could lurk be at almost every corner, and probably more at lower elevations than higher where it remains colder.
Why go when the conditions are like that? Can you imagine the JMT and not seeing a single person on the entire trip? No horseshit anywhere, no skeeters...
