Snowshoeing on a beautiful day at Big White.

View of a junior run at Big White - I used my live histogram display to determine an exposure.

I have been snowshoeing a few times, but never on trails quite this challenging.  Big White has several trails for snowshoers.  I was on four named trails that took me a distance of about 6 km.  Now, six km doesn't sound like a lot, but on snowshoes in deep snow, I was done in by the end.

The fact that I am somewhat out of shape didn't help.  This fact was brought home to me when I fell sideways into a snowbank and found myself flailing about like a fish out of water.  It took the help of a kindly passerby to extricate me from the humiliating condition in which he found me.  I thought that safety was better than humiliation; besides, I was very tired at the time.  When I got out, I discovered that my snowshoes had managed to find the bottom of a stream.  Thankfully, I didn't get wet.

I had hoped to get access to the top of the ski hill to take some photos of the valley, but I was inadequately equipped for the trip.  Not allowed on the lifts, the snowmobiles operated by staff wouldn't take me, and my struggling against slope and gravity didn't take me far.  However, I managed to save the day with an enjoyable trek through the woods.  I did manage to get some good photos; I will share them with you in the next few days.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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