Day 2 – A Bit of Snow Hiking

So… Morning of Day Two… I am snug in my sleeping bag with my beanie jammed over my eyes and I am hearing people stirring and getting started for the day. I finally poke my head out and Fiona and Kim are shouting at me “Welcome to Canada” and all I see out the window is white!!!

Actually I have it on good authority that Fiona’s first exclamation was slightly less enthusiastic and mostly unprintable! haha
However, I was thrilled with the unexpected beautiful covering of snow!

Apparently the first snows are seen in April but not usually this deep.

We had some breakfast – I think Fiona had some porridge and I just some coffee, then packed up our gear – let me tell you, people – its a hard thing pulling on wet socks and shoes just before heading out into the snow!

Here is Fiona in her rain kilt looking thrilled to have a go at snow hiking!
Apparently her kilt did really well in the rain and snow overall (It was a new item she got after seeing a hiker in New Zealand wearing one)

Since we weren’t the first to set out, we had the advantage of following footprints in the snow. There are occasional poles to mark the way, which is good as the boardwalks and path in the snow aren’t always the easiest things to spot.

When there was boardwalk, it was mostly quite narrow and very easy to misstep and fall off – which we did on a number of graceless occasions!

My tactic was to note the deep prints to each side where previous hikers had stumbled off and aim for the middle.

Sometimes we would enter small glades of snow covered trees which was just magical – we would even get ‘Christmas Snow’ (Which is what we called the thick flaky softly falling pretty stuff’)
This made Fiona quite happy!

Then we had to head back out into the open exposed areas

Which is all fun and games until a blizzard catches up with you…

At times there was no discernible path. The snow became quite deep in places and our pace was slow. Its all very well to step knee-deep into a snow hole, but not so fun to wrench your leg if you are set off balance (Which with a heavy pack I assumed a possibility.)

This is Fiona’s ‘I am not fond of Blizzards’ face:

In a very monochromatic landscape, seeing the bright yellow and orange of the tree bark was a bit of a relief to the eyes!

We stopped for a brief snack and drink at the turnoff to a side trip – but not for long. Any time not hiking caused you to cool down extremely quickly.

The landscape changed again, which was a welcome sight – we knew the next hut wasn’t too far away.

Fiona reckoned this tree was an example of what happens to you when you stand still long enough up there!

Finally and not a moment too soon we found Windermere Hut, where we could get out of our rain gear and wet boots and enjoy the warmth of the hut and hear everybody’s stories of ‘The Big Snow Hike’ 😀

Those planning on camping soon decided not to.

Below is the platform that Jeff, Rachel and myself camped on last year. Doesn’t look quite as inviting this time!

In the hut, the usual shoes, socks and clothes were hanging up and around the heater (giving the air that nice lived in smell haha)
We chose a bunk and got our sleeping gear ready (more thoughtful than blowing up your mattress and squeaking about after everyone else has gotten in to bed!)

Because it was a short day’s hike and we were in early, it gave us plenty of chances to have lunch, dinner and relax, talk to people, swap stories and food.

The ranger, Mitchell was there at that hut and kept us up to date with the latest weather information and told us stories – my favourite being the girl who was walking with friends around Cradle Mt area, got separated from her group and KEPT WALKING to Waterfall Valley Hut (ie night one of the Overland Track!!) then asked him to call her an Uber Driver!!!
Sometimes people are so far out of touch with their environment it boggles my mind.  I think I laughed every day about that one.

7pm and time for bed. It was a small hut so very warm.  Fiona did have some sleeping mattress issues – ie it ran away and practically fell on the people sleeping next to us in the middle of the night. I think she wiggles one way and it wriggles the other!!

A big days hiking the next day so everyone was keen to get some sleep and be up and moving bright and early!

Cheers!