2nd snowshoeing of the season

There was a lot of hype about a snow storm hitting the area this past weekend - and we did get a little snow in Olympia yesterday and this morning... But Friday night's storm didn't keep me from hitting the trails. Saturday, my friend Beth and I packed up our snowshoeing gear and headed back to Mt Rainier. I had just been there five days earlier, and it was certainly a different place with the new snow. The last few miles of the road were closed, so we started hiking just a few miles into the park.

We chose the Eagle Peak trail - which the ranger said would be the hardest of the handful of options... so naturally we went for it. The summit was up 3,000 ft and 3.6 miles ahead. We hiked in for almost three hours before the cold started getting to my feet. We made it about 2 miles in and 2,000 feet up, one of the more aggressive altitude gains I've done in the snow.

My pictures aren't too diverse since we never made it above the tree line.

Here's a few shots from the trail...


We turned around because my feet were getting soaked and reeaally cold... maybe in the early stages of frostbite. Thankfully there were a couple other hikers who gifted me with an extra pair of warm wool socks for the trip down... my first x-mas gift of the year.

Lesson learned: don't go out there without all the right gear!