72 Hours Snowed In: The Pine Ridge Lodge Log

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This is an Acard example page. Pine Ridge Lodge, its keeper Doyun Han and the 24 guests are made up, and the numbers only add up inside this story.

Operations log
1,420 m above sea level
January 17-20, 2026
0 injuries

At 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 17, the county sent a text: "Mountain road fully closed." Inside the lodge were 3 staff, 17 overnight guests and 4 hikers who could no longer get down. Twenty-four people. The snowplow took 69 hours and 40 minutes to reach us, and the last guest left exactly 72 hours after that text.

This page is built from the notes keeper Doyun Han typed on his phone during those three days: what ran short, what we gave up, and what we will do differently next winter.

The 72 hours at a glance

People snowed in

including 3 children

Until the plow arrived

69 h 40 min

Firewood burned

166 bundles-34%

vs. 252 in the first plan

Injuries

1 mild hypothermia case, recovered

On paper it was a calm three days. But when we sat down with a calculator at 11 p.m. on the first night, neither the firewood nor the food would last 72 hours. The rest of this page is how we changed that math.

Timeline

Jan 17, 14:00 (T+0)
Road closure text
41 cm of snow on the ground and 5 cm more every hour.
17:10 (T+3)
Power cut
A line went down. We agreed to run the generator 5 hours a day.
19:00 (T+5)
Stock count
180 bundles of firewood, 120 L of diesel, 141,000 kcal of food.
23:00 (T+9)
Close the annex, start rationing
Heat only the main hall and dining room. 1,900 kcal per person per day.
Jan 18, 10:00 (T+20)
Frozen pipe warning
We filled 2 bathtubs and 9 buckets with water.
21:00 (T+31)
One case of mild hypothermia
A hiker who went to the annex for his bag. Recovered within 40 minutes.
Jan 19, 10:00 (T+44)
Plow schedule confirmed
By radio: "aiming to arrive the morning of the 20th."
Jan 20, 00:00 (T+58)
The snow stopped
1.38 m of snow in total.
11:40 (T+69h40m)
The plow arrives
The three children and 9 adults went down first.
14:00 (T+72)
Last guest leaves
The 3 staff stayed behind to close up.

Firewood: we needed 252 bundles and had 180

Until the first evening we heated both buildings as usual. At 3.5 bundles an hour, 72 hours meant 252 bundles. The shed held 180. The call at 11 p.m. was simple: close the 8 annex rooms, and all 24 people live in the main hall and the dining room.

Firewood burned every 6 hours

Firewood burned every 6 hours
항목	Stoves	Cooking	Hot water	합계
T+0~	16bundles	2bundles	1bundles	19bundles
T+6~	13bundles	2bundles	1bundles	16bundles
T+12~	10bundles	2bundles	1bundles	13bundles
T+18~	11bundles	2bundles	1bundles	14bundles
T+24~	9bundles	2bundles	1bundles	12bundles
T+30~	10bundles	2bundles	1bundles	13bundles
T+36~	11bundles	2bundles	1bundles	14bundles
T+42~	9bundles	2bundles	1bundles	12bundles
T+48~	10bundles	2bundles	1bundles	13bundles
T+54~	11bundles	2bundles	1bundles	14bundles
T+60~	9bundles	2bundles	1bundles	12bundles
T+66~	11bundles	2bundles	1bundles	14bundles

Total 166 bundles (stoves 130, cooking 24, hot water 12). After the decision it settled at 12-14 bundles per 6 hours.

To check that the hall really stayed livable, we hung a thermometer on the hall wall, one in the closed annex corridor and one under the eaves outside, and wrote them down every 6 hours.

Temperature every 6 hours

Temperature every 6 hours
항목	Main hall	Closed annex	Outside
T+0	18°C	17.5°C	-8.2°C
T+6	16.5°C	12°C	-11.5°C
T+12	14.8°C	8.1°C	-16.8°C
T+18	15.6°C	6.2°C	-17.9°C
T+24	16.2°C	5.9°C	-13.2°C
T+30	15.1°C	4.8°C	-16.4°C
T+36	14.2°C	3.6°C	-20.6°C
T+42	14°C	3.1°C	-21.4°C
T+48	15.8°C	3.9°C	-15.1°C
T+54	15.9°C	3.8°C	-14°C
T+60	15.2°C	3.4°C	-12.2°C
T+66	15.6°C	3.2°C	-10.5°C
T+72	17.1°C	4°C	-4.3°C

The coldest moment was 8 a.m. on January 19 (T+42), -21.4 °C outside. The hall was still at 14.0 °C.

Lesson: three thermometers turn "are we okay?" into a number. When people got anxious, we pinned this chart on the dining room wall.

Food: getting by on 1,900 kcal a day

At a normal adult intake we needed 24 people × 2,300 kcal × 3 days = 165,600 kcal. We had 141,000. So we rationed to 1,900 kcal per person per day: 24 × 1,900 × 3 = 136,800 kcal, leaving 4,200. The three kids got first pick of the snacks.

Food stock at the start

Rice & noodles41%
Canned food22%
Bread & rice cakes16%
Meat & eggs13%
Snacks9%

Food stock at the start
항목	값	비중
Rice & noodles	58,000kcal	41%
Canned food	31,000kcal	22%
Bread & rice cakes	22,000kcal	16%
Meat & eggs	18,000kcal	13%
Snacks	12,000kcal	9%

Item	Start (kcal)	Left (kcal)	Note
Rice & noodles	58,000	1,800	Porridge stretches it further
Canned food	31,000	600	40 cans of tuna saved us
Bread & rice cakes	22,000	0	Breakfast on days 1 and 2
Meat & eggs	18,000	0	Eaten first, before the freezer warmed up
Snacks	12,000	1,800	Kids' share set aside

"I expected rationing to feel mean, but everyone watching the same pot actually felt reassuring." - Eunsol Park, guest, on the second evening

Power and water

The generator started with 120 L of diesel. At full load it burns 4.0 L an hour, so it would be empty in 30 hours. We ran it 5 hours a day: 2 hours in the morning for the water pump and the freezer, 3 in the evening for radio and phone charging and lights. With an extra half hour on the first night, that was 15.5 hours and 62 L.

게이지 그래프
항목	현재	최솟값	최댓값	목표
Diesel left (L)	58	0	120	40

58 L left on the day we came down. The tick marks 40 L, enough for one more day.

Water notes (expand)

On the second morning the pipes started to freeze, so we filled 2 bathtubs and 9 buckets, about 520 L. Drinking water was kept separate: 96 bottles of 1.5 L. Dishes were done twice a day in one go, and rinse water went to the toilets. The pipes never froze in the end, but the stored water meant less pump time.

Who did what

Twenty-four people in one hall only works if the jobs are shared. This is the job board from the whiteboard on the second morning.

Job board (morning of Jan 18)

8 tasks

To do3

Board up annex windows
HeatJungwoo
Fill water buckets
WaterSoyeon
Make dinner porridge
KitchenEunsol

Doing3

Check stoves every 2 h
HeatDoyun
Board games with the kids
CareMirae
Hourly radio check
RadioTaeho

Done2

Stock count
KitchenEunsol
Hand out 31 blankets
CareMirae

To do: 3 tasks
Doing: 3 tasks
Done: 2 tasks

The one scary moment

At 9 p.m. on the second night, a hiker went to fetch his bag from the annex and didn't come back for over 20 minutes. When we found him, his speech was slow and his hands were shaking. The annex corridor was at 4.8 °C. We followed the steps we had posted, and 40 minutes later he ate two bowls of porridge.

After that we made a rule: the annex only in pairs, and back within 10 minutes.

Walk down, or wait?

On the second day, a few guests wanted to walk down. We put the three options in a table and looked at it together.

Option	Walk down	Call a helicopter	Wait for the plowChosen
Time	6-8 h through 1 m of snow	Only once the weather clears	About 2 days
Risk	High	Medium	Low
With 3 kids	—
Possible with what we had			Yes, if rationing holds

Ready for next winter

The week after, the three of us made a list. What's already done is ticked.

✓Stack at least 260 bundles of firewood (274 now)

✓Keep 200 L of generator diesel

Insulated curtains in the annex

180,000 kcal of emergency food (24 × 2,500 kcal × 3 days)

One satellite messenger

✓Three thermometers, permanently mounted

In three days we never made a single announcement. The charts and tables on the dining room wall did that job. If we get snowed in again, this page is the first thing we'll open.