Last night it rained in Wenatchee, WA and snowed at higher elevations. This morning, Karen and I headed up toward Mission Ridge Ski Area in dense fog. As we gained elevation, the sun began burning through the fog. Climbing ridges on snowshoes, we got above the fog by noon: blue skies. Hooray!

Karen and I went five miles total with 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Powder snow. Snowshoeing is harder than hiking. Each time I lifted up a foot to step, the snowshoe was heavy with snow.

Avalanche Danger

In several areas, above us was a steep, treeless, snowy hillside that could easily slide. Karen tested the snow and found a hard layer four inches below the surface. We hurried through it.

Mike, a backcountry skier with a dog, joined us for about a mile. We enjoyed talking with him. "Go ahead of us so you can break trail for us," Karen said. He did.

"We're the lucky people," Mike said, taking in the spectacular view. He was right. No one else was on the trail. There's something special about getting away from crowds.

Scary, steep drop-off

As you gain elevation, the trail gets extremely narrow with a steep drop-off on one side. Huge exposure. Walking along the drop-off was easier with snow piled up on both sides of the trail. I slowed down because I knew the drop-off was there.

A wonderful day.

Photos:

1. Small evergreen with a mantle of snow.

2. Snowy cliffs.

3. Larch tree with snow on every branch. You can see how steep it was.