Get your night shirt and head to the yurt
This week’s heavy snowstorm reminded many locals just how ugly Cache Valley winters can be. Roads are icy, the temperature is dropping and the dreaded inversion is sure to be on its way.
“The Saturday before last, we did our annual snow dance to please the snow gods,” Tyler Neal said in reference to a bonfire he and friends hold every year up Green Canyon. “With the recent storm, we have been blessed accordingly,” said the senior majoring in recreation resource management.
With the onslaught of winter also comes the return of various winter sports. Consequently, the change in season also coincides with a change in rental gear available from USU’s Outdoor Recreation Center. Instead of kayaks and canoes, the center now focuses on renting out winter equipment like downhill skis, snowshoes and even yurts.
For those students not familiar with the term, yurts are circular tents used for winter camping. The yurts are relatively permanent, located in several different Cache Valley locations, said John Louviere, program administrator at the ORC. Three yurts located at different locations in Logan Canyon stay up all year round while the one yurt up North Logan’s Green Canyon is assembled and dismantled at the beginning and end of winter. Each yurt holds a wood-burning stove, a kitchen and sleeping bunks for as many as 12 different people.
Most people who rent out the yurts do so in order to have quick access to nearby back-country skiing spots, Louviere said, noting all four yurts are located very close to wilderness boundaries.
“The Green Canyon yurt is ideal for students,” he said. “It’s not that far from campus, and the road there is all groomed.”
Any yurt excursion requires a three to four mile hike by snowshoe or cross-country skis. Renting a yurt costs anywhere from $50-$170 a night, depending on the day of the week and the number of days stayed. USU students do receive a discount off the basic rate.
“If you can get enough friends together, once you split the cost up, it’s as cheap as going to the movies,” said Paul Bowman, rental and retail supervisor at the ORC.
“We have colleges coming this year all the way from New York. Almost every school in the Utah sends up a group as well.”
In addition to yurts, the ORC rents out a variety of other equipment. New equipment this year includes several new sets of telemark skis, specifically smaller skis for women skiers. The ORC also recently purchased several airboards, which are inflatable sleds that are steerable.
“They’re really big in Europe right now, but just starting to catch on in the states,” Bowman said.
The most popular items rented during the winter months include both snowshoes and cross-crosscountry skis. On a typical weekend with snow, all sorts of students will rent out the snowshoes for the day. Snowboards and downhill skis are also commonly rented.
One new piece of equipment has Bowman especially excited. The ORC recently purchased equipment for students to try out kite boarding, where a person uses a power kite to generate momentum and ride a snowboard on a flat, snowy surface.
“The sport’s only been in the U.S. for a few years,” Bowman said.
A faculty member at USU is a skilled kite boarder and may conduct classes for those interested, Bowman said, though such a class is still in the works.
Several formal outdoor recreation classes are already offered through the university’s physical education department. Classes for skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding, telemark skiing, ice skating, figure skating and curling are currently being offered for the upcoming spring semester.
With so much going on, many students are excited for the upcoming season after this week’s snowfall.
“I was skiing down the hill to my house,” said Kaylon Anderson, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering. “I’m loving life; it’s winter.”
Others don’t agree.
“Snow is like that beautiful, snobby, rich girl next door,” graduate student Grant Bushman said. “It’s nice to look at, but it’s not something I want to encounter every day.”
-jcox@cc.usu.edu