When I went into the Snow cave we dug in 1970 that we dug with our snow shoes we weren't really prepared to do this because we didn't have a tent or ground cloths. We thought we were going to stay in Horse Camp Sierra Club emergency lodge and be okay. However, we were not okay. We were all college age then and one friend went to Sacramento STate, our other friend went to UCLA and I was going to college in San Diego County. So, I drove my 1966 Seablue VW Bug with a white interior up to Los Angeles County to Palos Verdes where my friend's family lived. Then we drove up to Chico where my other friends mother lived. Then we drove to Mt. Shasta. For me this was a 14 hour or more drive from early that morning. So, if I had been more rested I likely wouldn't have done this but we were all macho thinking that we could actually do this in a blizzard because we were young and foolish college kids.
So, after we moved into the snow cave because of a snow blizzard white out for the night because one of us knew how to do this and showed us how we all started shaking from the cold even inside of the snow cave. Why?
Because we didn't have a tent or ground cloths to keep out the wet from the snow so our bodies through the sleeping bags melted the snow inside the snow cave so we started shaking from the cold ice water we were laying down in within an hour or two. But, it goes beyond shaking into a convulsive kind of shaking at a certain point where you are moving towards actually freezing to death where you could actually die from this.
What actually saved our lives was the next morning when we dug out of the snow cave it was cloudy but had stopped snowing after dropping over 3 new feet of powder snow on us (which scared the hell out of me as I dug us out of the cave because I had to dig 3 feet further than the night before.
But, what actually saved us is the 20 degrees fahrenheit outside which froze our Levi's jeans we all wore then so they all froze solid which allowed us not to freeze to death outside of the snow cave because the ice was an insulation barrier of sorts and kept us from completely freezing to death in the 20 degree temperatures outside. But, it also froze our beards because two of us wore beards so if we grabbed our beard the hair just broke off and we laughed about this.
However, then we had another problem which is 3 feet of powder snow with snow shoes. So, the leader of the 3 of us (we kept switching leader so we wouldn't all get worn out doing this had to pack down the snow about three times for each step forward because of the powder snow which was exhausting work for anyone. Eventually we got down to the paved road but now there was 8 feet of drifted snow covering the road so we weren't even sure the paved road was the paved road.
About this time we heard a large snow plow that is about 7 foot high or taller blades that is a giant snowblower set up coming slowly up the road. At this point we dug down to make sure that this was the paved road 8 feet down and it was. Then we got into a car I think it was an International Harvester Scout II then that friends of ours owned who were working at the ski bowl up past Panther Meadows because it wasn't destroyed by an avalanche until the 1970s later so it was destroyed by an avalanche within 5 years of when this happened. So, we rode up in the IH Scout to the end of the road with our friends who worked on the ski lift then and went into the bathroom to get feeling back into our hands on the bathroom hot hand driers.
Then we hitched a ride down with someone in their car to Bunny Flats where my car was parked but I could only see the top of the VW Aerial and that's all. But, luckily the snow plow hadn't eaten up my car by accident so we had to remove some snow to get into it and off the windshield and windows too and to push the car out of the heavy snow.
Then we drove to the Lemurian Lodge that was owned by a friend and his family then and got a room for about 4 days taking turns getting into the bathtub to try to thaw out from almost freezing to death.
NOw people (with health insurance) would likely go to a hospital now but then we didn't have health insurance because we were just college students. So, instead we just took turns trying to warm our bodies up in a hot bath tub instead and sleeping a lot to be able to survive all this.
Finally we felt well enough to pack up and head home so I dropped one friend off in Chico at his Mom's and one friend off at Palos Verdes at his folks place and I drove back to San Diego County to Rancho bernardo where i lived then near Escondido.
However, all my joints hurt for many years after that so I was in pain for several years from almost freezing to death and I still can't always tell if I'm too hot or too cold because I lost that sense sort of permanently from almost freezing to death in December of 1970 on Mt. Shasta.
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