It's been an unusual winter around here, with mountain biking in shirt sleeves on dry dirt in December, near record lows for a brutally cold week and a half in mid January, followed by two very warm weeks with a few record daily highs and some rain that decimated the cross country skiing and did no favours for the local backcountry, which has suffered from a very low and weak snowpack. Even hiking was questionable, with trails covered in a sheet of "death ice". It really was looking pretty grim, until cooler temperatures and a weekend storm that brought 30 cm to the foothills west of Calgary gave a much needed refresh. With fresh snow, sun and mild (-5 C) temperatures, today restored my waning love of winter!
Yes I had to reclaim my space every couple of hours by pushing out on the walls. Snowed maybe only 10 inches but the wind was fierce and being on the lee side of those trees deposited a lot more right there
Snowshoeing around John Brown’s Farm …
A view of John Brown’s house with one of the Olympic ski jumps way in the background
Jackie taking photos through the snow tunnel
A view of some of the Adirondack high peaks from the farm … Colden, Wright, Algonquin, Boundary (not officially a 46er), and Iroquois. Algonquin is the second highest peak after Marcy.
The trail comes close to one of the ski jump towers
