Yurt for backcountry skiing?

[Powder]

Hi Charlie-

We run a BC yurt biz here in n. Utah. Two yurts sit at 8,000' and have been in use for 30+ years. The originals were custom made, but over the years (we've run them for 6) upgrades have been made, primarily the walls and roof. One yurt has the original wall material!

One yurt we partially rebuilt after the outy became an inny with 6' of 30% water content snow in 2011. I think that's why the previous owners decided to sell - we proved our chops by rebuilding the yurt.

The construction is very minimal considering the snowload, partially due to them being 1.5 miles back in on horse/hiking trails. 2x2" rafters, standard lathe, no supports. We had one rafter crack and the cable separate after 4 feet of snow, but patched it just before Christmas and rented it out the rest of the season.

That said, we plan on upgrading in the next few years to 20' HD yurts that will require minimal upkeep and worry. Still, we ski in at least every 2 weeks for maintenance (and this year shovel 2-4' of snow EVERY time). Also our guests do quite a bit of shovelling (in exchange for all the powder!) I'd recommend checking a local SNOTEL site, or if you buy a piece of dirt put up a snow gauge so you'll know what you will need. We get so much snow at one yurt that we will likely elevate it from current 2' to 4 or 5'.