Wow.

Our trip to the mountain last week was inspiring. Unfortnately, it started out poorly. The week before , I had left my brand-spankin-new gloves that Becky got me for Christmas in the ski-hill parking lot. Eric and I wen't back to dig for them in the 2+ feet of new snow. Even after Jim and Trent joined the efforts, we were unable to locate them. So sad.

But I moved on! I realized if I let it stick with me, it would ruin the trip. We headed the other side of the mountain to begin our hike / ski / sled (Jim was on backcountry skiis, the rest of us were on snowshoes pulling sleds). The hike in was great. The air was fairly warm, but snow was falling in mass amounts. I thought we were almost to our lunch stop at the Tilly Jane A-frame, but then we saw a sign that indicated we were still 2.5 miles away. That hurt. When we finally arrived, we met a cluster of people all planning on spending the night. This reinforced our desire to spend the night in the upper shelter on Cooper Spur. After a brief lunch, we donned our gloves and hat to continue up the mountain. This was the coldest period of the whole trip. Having secured my snowshoes with my bare hands, and having waited for Trent to attach his sled, my fingers would not warm up. Fortunately, just as I was about to cut off the frostbitten tips, they started to gain feeling. Crisis averted. So we made our way to the hut above the timberline. [wow...this is going to be long].

Upon arriving, we realized the hut was 3/4 full of snow. We began the task of removing enough snow to create sufficient sleeping area for the four of us. It was great fun, for the snow perfect consistency and the task was completed quickly. After about 2 hours of work we had created a 3 tiered bunk house for our snowbound enjoyment.

to be continued...