When the high is in the teens and there is snow on the ground, I usually leave the bike at home and break out the hiking boots and snowshoes. Friday was one of those days. With the cold front we’ve been having (and apparently it’s cold in NM and parts of TX too!), things up here are pretty frigid.
Lucky for me, Eddie was heading out into the mountains to play in the snow. When I checked the weather before getting dressed, it was below zero up there so I layered and layered, and added extra clothes, gloves, socks, hat, etc to my pack. I also filled my thermos with some homemade Minestrone that proved to be delicious and piping hot later in the day.
The wind was raging at and around Moffat Tunnel, snow was blowing horizontally and stinging our faces, but I still smiled at the adventure (and it made my teeth cold, they are so sensitive!)
We hiked up aways, and worked on a snow fortress Eddie is creating so he has a place to crash for backcountry ski approaches. Super cool.
Mush! Mush!
Right now it just looks like a huge pile of snow, but it will eventually be pretty sweet after some shoveling and carving.
We headed up a little bit higher, which required strapping on the snowshoes. We made our way to a lake. Eddie confidently stepped out onto the lake and walked right to the middle. I was very hesitant, and had never stood on a frozen lake. Sure enough, it was solid. The cold was piercing and raw with the wind chill (about -20F!!!)
I need a t-shirt that says, “I love high alpine.” I always want to get up above treeline, but the avalanche danger was high in that area, and the wind was raging. We had to stay under treeline, but we were still pretty high up at 10,700′.
“Hey look! I think I see a fish!”
The afternoon was coming to an end, so we had to head back down.
We didn’t forget to stop and take it all in.
You can vaguely see the blowing snow.
I think I will get out on the bike for a little bit today, and tomorrow will be another snowshoe expedition, but I get to go with Jeff!! Next week, it’s back to the bike (but I am going to continue with my cross training mission over the winter. I got my 4 pass to Loveland. Woohoo!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Sonya.
frickin beautiful. we’ve only got a few inches of the white stuff right now and nothing is really frozen yet but we’ve got a good one coming our way today. may be snowshoeing this afternoon.