Exercise and Fitness

A while back, me and ZenLeftyGirl went showshoeing in the mountains. The weather report said there was a 10% chance of snow. What it didn't tell us was that the other 90% chance was for a blizzard with gale force winds, sheets of heavy snow and whiteout conditions everywhere. Because about 2 miles up the trail, the tiny little flakes that had been coming down turned into just that.

We were well prepared and well dressed for the weather, but with visibility at 10 feet, snow covering our return tracks faster than we could make them, and blowing snow from all directions at once, it was very treacherous. Rocky, lots of slopes, lots of places we lost sight of the trail or any landmarks. We had to huddle around the iphone to see the gps and figure out where we needed to go. When the gusts came up, we had to stop and hunker down or we'd get blown over. It was really bad, but we're troopers and we never panicked, just kept following what markers we could to get back to the car.

About halfway back, we encounter an old man running up the trail. Dressed in black, ski goggles over his leathery face. He looked like the kind of guy who runs that trail seven days a week 365 days a year and never skips no matter what the weather is. Here we were thinking this blizzard was life threatening and we had to get back to our car immediately, and he just runs past us and waves. When he passed, I said "Dude!" What I wanted to say is "Dude you're going to die out here stop running and turn back!!" but I was too dumbfounded.

By the time we got back to our car, pushed the snow away from the doors, pried our snowshoes off, got inside and got the defrost working, he was already back down the trail. Just hopped in his jeep and left.