I was flying near the toe of the Ruth Glacier this afternoon and decided to set down for a quick pee break. I was rather surprised when I stepped out of the Cub and post-holed up to my crotch. I put new bottoms on my skis a few years ago and extended them to get maximum floatation. My old bottoms were not extended, and in soft snow this caused me much physical and emotional stress. Someday I will show the photos of what happens when the snow is soft, and your skis are too small. The above photo pleases me greatly in comparison.
A snowmachiner saw us circling for a place to land, and shortly after we were on the ground he came over to say “hi”. It’s always odd when you think you have the wilderness to yourself and then a snow-machine pulls up. There was a thin crust that could almost support me, but I was just too fat, and every time I took a step I sunk nearly to my waist. I had a passenger on board, and I was heavy on fuel, so without those big fat skis this snow would have swallowed us up. I landed on a, good up-slope so gravity could aid our take-off through the deep snow. It was 25 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and dead calm. It was another one of those days that reminded me why I love Alaska.