Thursday, January 20, 2011

Sequoia Skiing

BEG, The Spaniard, and I decided to take the long weekend prior to the beginning of my semester to go snow camping in Sequoia. The weather couldn't have been better - it was serene, spectacular, gorgeous. And we had the place all to ourselves!


We like to camp safe and store our food appropriately in bear lockers. Unfortunately, the 90 inches of snow that would provide us with excellent snowshoeing conditions and deceiving skiing conditions, also largely obscured things like bear lockers.


Luckily I had remembered to purchase a shovel, and The Spaniard was keen to hone his shoveling skills.


We got creative for maneuvering around the campsite (snow shoes were really handy) and setting up a cook station, oh, and staying warm!


But then, with the sun and some giant red trees, we launched into a glorious new day!


It was consistently funny how much snow there was- why warn about the steps when the snow has buried them so deeply that the railing is at ground level?




I spent quite a bit of time watching youtube videos on xcountry ski techniques over xmas, and was particularly fascinated by the step turn... I think it's much funnier if you high-knee it, especially if your rate of forward motion is very slow.







And then, seemingly out of nowhere, our solitude was broken. 20 boy scout tents formed a city around our campsite and flags, tables, sleds, saws, stoves, kids and fire pits littered the previously pristine snow.

2 comments:

Missy said...

Looks amazingly awesome! Glad you got to go before the semester started!

Dawn said...

Ahh the boyscouts. They seem to follow us everywhere!