The Big Adventure

It's been awhile since our last post. Truthfully not many post-worthy events have been going on at our house, but leave it to Jared, his dad and his brother to change all of that. Most of you have heard the story from me, but I thought you might want to get Jared's perspective on things. This could take awhile so bear with us. So last Friday, February 5th the Christensen men decided to go for a "short" ride just to check out all the fresh snow that had fallen throughout the week. They left Richmond around 12:00 and said they would be back before dark, because it was a "little" (notice the sarcasm) foggy that day and it wouldn't be a great day to ride. So imagine my surprise when his aunt Karen calls me at 4:30 to inform me that the mighty sledders have gotten themselves into a little "situation" and they probably won't be home tonight. (Insert Kami's meltdown here.) Karen tells me not to worry that they have "food", "water" and some "sleeping bags" and they should be fine for the night. Luckily they had a torch and could start a fire for the night. She also tells me that Kim made his brother Bret promise not to call search and rescue, because things really aren't that bad and all they need is a little help to pull the sleds up in the morning. I immediately start thinking about avalanches, hypothermia, frostbite, wild animals, and all other sorts of life threatening scenarios. So needless to say Friday night was probably the longest night of my life and I think Case thought his mom was obviously loosing it. Well in the mean time Jared, Kim and Jason have left the place they told Bret they would be in hopes of ridding to the outlet of the canyon. Their first priority was to get home with sleds in tact and they thought the canyon would "open up" eventually. Well, they had gotten to the point where there were just too many trees and debris in the way to continue on the sleds so they stopped and made camp for the night. I'm pretty sure this was the longest night of their lives too. The pictures below is of their camp for the night.

So early Saturday morning the Rescue Crew (10 family members, neighbors, and close friends) set out equip with the GPS coordinates, a Google map, lots of rope, snowshoes and tons of food. So they set out, using a two way radio to contact Jared on his Garmin GPS (best investment ever-well maybe the avalanche beacon is the best, but hopefully we won't be testing that theory anytime soon). Anyway, so in the meantime, Jared and the others are trying to walk out the bottom of the canyon, until a member of search and rescue tells them they need to turn around and come back up because the canyon bottom has serious drop offs and even a waterfall. So exhausted as they are they turn around and walk back up to the initial contact place they had left Friday afternoon (isn't that the first thing you learn in scouts that when you're lost in the woods, stay where you are?). Anyway, finally around 1:00 they meet up with the rescuers and get some much needed food and water. The "food and water" they said they had turned out to be two candy bars and a Mt. Dew. Better than nothing I guess. So after they build some energy back up and got some snowshoes they made pretty good time and by 4:30 they were home. Tired, cold, dehydrated and hungry, but in good spirits. So good in fact that we went to the Aggie v Nevada game that night. Crazy I know. They did have to abandon their sleds, but don't you worry they were back up on Monday and Tuesday for a recovery mission. Needless to say it was an exciting weekend. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and phone calls. Check out the rest of the pics. Most are from the recovery of the sleds, but still pretty interesting. (taken from Justin's plane Monday, February 8th.

Oh, I forgot the picture of the fire is from Tuesday when they went to recover the sleds. His cousin's husbands truck started on fire on the way up to the mountain. Not a good sign. But everyone in the Recovery Crew (sled's included) are home safe and sound and ready for another ride.