Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Snowshoeing is my new adventure--LOVE IT!

This is my first time ever snowshoeing December 29th 2007.
I feel very grateful to have a great friend and neighbor lend me her equipment while she's in California for the holidays, and then to have another friend carpool to the start with me.
Carol and Jen, this couldn't have happened without you. And I loved it, so thanks.
Three days later I returned to the mountain without my friends
but so happy to have this group to join, the Utah Velo Club.
Stan is in charge of all of the events and he took all of the pictures. When I grow up I want to be just like him. I know he's over 60 years old and going so STRONG!
I'm near the back of this line of 17 people (with the bright pink jacket).
We stopped here to check for frostbite. Of course I've heard one of the signs is mild insanity which we all readily agreed applies.
Ralph's head is actually steaming, and if you get close you can see the frost on the other guy's eye lashes.
That's me taking up the rear. You can see our destination, the top of Mill Peak 10,359 ft. in the background.
Many of the original starters have gone home by this point. After about three hours we decide to stop here for lunch. I've taken off my pink jacket and am the short one on the left in black fleece and navy snowpants. Someday I'll get some matching garb.
Just when you think you're almost done...This is a false peak close to the top, but when you get there you can see how much farther to go. At this point I felt sorry for those who turned around and headed back. This is the best part of the trip. We had a beautiful sunny day with no wind. I could not be more grateful, grateful, grateful!

If ever I wanted to be a mountain climber I've fulfilled my dream today.
Pushing on...this time we are really almost there.
This is it! We made it. I put on my layers again to stay warm while we rest and enjoy the view. Just behind us you could see (if you were there) a helicopter dropping off skiers in the backcountry. I have to admit on the way down I wished for a pair of skis at one point. It's steep.
Here I tried to make a phone call to my family and tell them "I'm at the top of the world." If you've not experienced it you can not understand it. This is amazing. Soldier Hollow is behind me along with Heber city. To my right is Mt. Timpanogos and I'm facing into Park city, I think.
What a bummer this picture of all who made it to the top shrunk. I'm not sure what happened.





2 comments:

Ash said...

I'm proud. What a hard thing to do! But rewarding. I went ice fishing once with JD's family and it was pretty much a disaster. Good job for making it the whole way! I personally love this warm weather here!

Tavia said...

That looks like so much fun! I love snowshoeing...it's a great way to stay in shape in the winter. Way to go!