Some days you just don’t want to get out of bed. This was one of those days. Except we’d promised to meet up and go snowshoeing with a friend of ours. At least we had arranged to go somewhere nearby, and since none of us are morning people we met at a reasonable time of day. We made it up to the cross-country ski area on Hollyburn and I dragged myself out of the car, put on my boots and snowshoes and away we went. Reluctantly. Very reluctantly.
The winter trail to Hollyburn starts off gradually for the first 100 m or so but then climbs steeply up to meet the power lines. That stretch always feels steep, but today I didn’t think I would make it. One foot in front of the other, trying not to trip over my snowshoes, I made it. On we went, and somehow we found ourselves at the base of the final ascent up Hollyburn. I wasn’t keeping track of where I was, or our time and I could have turned around at any point and gone home. But I kept going, and filled with dread I began to follow Maria and Anne up the slope. But then something happened. The dead-weight dragging feeling lifted and suddenly I was powering up the hill! I knew I was feeling better as I began to take photos too.
So up we went, the visibility turned from terrible to non-existent and before long we found ourselves at the summit. We stopped long enough for lunch before reluctantly tackling the fun bit – sliding back down! :-) On the descent we opted against following the regular trail and headed off through the trees into the untouched snow. It was hard to believe it was April as the snow was wonderful soft powder. Great stuff for whoompfing through on snowshoes. We made it back to the car and headed home for hot chocolate and hot showers!
As the saying goes, a crappy day in the mountains is still a good day.
Distance: 5 km?
Elevation gain: 400 m
Photos on Flickr
