Page 2: The new Lunch library

So if your house burns down and you’re looking to start rebuilding your library, I’ve got a great suggestion for you. “The Log of a Snow Survey” by Bishop resident Patrick Armstrong.

This is one of the two best books I’ve ever read by a local author (the other was Jim Reed’s book, entitled “The Fatal Affair in Monte Diablo Canyon.”

To pile on a few more accolades, Armstrong’s writing conjures thoughts of Edward Abbey or Norman Maclean. Reading this book means spending time with a very thoughtful, wry, observant mentor who parcels out his wisdom with a light touch (some older folks like to beat you over the head with everything they know. Armstrong’s not like that).

What Armstrong does in this book is take you along on an actual backcountry snow surveying trip he took with his mentors, Murt Stewart and Dave Sharp. Along the way, he weaves in tales of other trips and includes log entries of other surveyors (including Jay Jensen, Jim and Sue King, Sue Burak, Ann Klinefelter, Doug Powell, Bill Fong, Nick Hartzel, Kit Carr, and Randall Osterhuber).

As Armstrong said in a recent interview, the book is not so much about snow surveying as it is about observing the high country in winter, in remote, rugged terrain that not many of us spend too much time in, but after you read the book, you’ll  wish you did.

Normally, I’d pause here to give two or three stories or thoughts or observations within the book that I really liked. But what I found is that my book has 26 pages dog-eared.

I’ll tell you this anecdote because it relates to one of the principal characters in the book. Dave Sharp, prior to being Armstrong’s snow survey colleague, was Pat’s high school teacher and track coach in Bishop in the mid-1960s.

“He taught during the Vietnam era and led us to come to our own independent conclusions about it [the Vietnam conflict].” As Armstrong writes, “In a small western town like Bishop it was not popular to teach kids to think on their own. His teaching career was short-lived.”

As for Murt Stewart, he had a pack station in Big Pine for years and still lives there. “Murt was a big guy. Even at 70, he could still break trail all day long.”

As you’ll find out in these pages, he was also big enough to haul a fellow surveyor out of an alpine lake when his partner fell through the ice.

In his book, Armstrong draws on his 42 years experience as a snow surveyor. Twenty-eight of those years (1972-1991 and 2006-present) have been spent in the Eastern Sierra.

He also draws upon his rich and varied life experience. Among other things, he’s owned a commercial fishing operation in Alaska, which he sold to buy a cattle operation in McCall, Idaho. He’s also taught chemistry and electronics at the College of Idaho, and was a former member of the U.S. Biathlon team.

He’s also probably disappointed in that last paragraph because he’s not a boastful type. Tough luck.

He also didn’t want me to write too much about him and focus more on the book, but … you’re all going to go buy the book (or should) anyway, so here’s the story of how he met his wife.

He was renting the downstairs of his home in Bishop to a local doctor who took a leave of absence. It was hard not to take notice of the cute, young lab scientist whom the doctor had recruited to caretake the property in his absence.

Upon his return, the doctor set up a ski outing for Pat and the lab scientist. They skied all morning. Pat thought she was married (because she had a young child).

She wasn’t.

They’ve been married 29 years and have three children total

Okay, okay … back to snow surveying.

“When I started, the pay was the equivalent of $300/day in today’s dollars (or $145 at the time). It was two weeks on/two weeks off and we had four guys.

Now, the pay is $150/day, virtually unchanged.

There are enough people who like to ski the backcountry, so you’re gonna have people in the ranks. But the job is much more than that. The job isn’t about extreme skiing.”

I asked Pat about the epic blizzards he describes in the book. I figured, geez, you would think people get lost/disoriented once in awhile. He said no. In his whole experience, he could only recall one time where a guy got lost and froze his feet. As for the new technology, Armstrong said, “You don’t want to count on a GPS reading. You want to know where you are based on the topography.” In his book, Pat talks about his reliance on the identification of certain trees as markers. How these trees have become almost familial to him.

I could go on, but alas, no more room. If you’d like to meet Pat, Spellbinder Books is hosting a book signing on March 14 from 3-5 p.m.