I didn’t bother to pull on new socks. I just rammed my poor, cold feet into my winter boots with my trembling hands. It was post run/hike. Sitting shotgun while Amanda stuffed her face with warm pie, I was trying to warm up as quickly as possible.
We stopped into the Miner’s Cafe in Nordegg after our failed attempt at reaching the summit of Coliseum Mountain. I am not a pie person so I had fill of potato chips. Give me all the salt.
I had driven to Red Deer that morning with the promise of a clear day on top of a peak in David Thompson Country. I haven’t done Coliseum in a long time so it would all be fresh and shiny to me. It turns out Amanda had never reached the peak so I was happy to show her the way. When I lived in Red Deer, I used to train here a lot. It’s a moderate trail which sees many people over the course of the year.
We reached the trailhead around 11 a.m. We were surprised not to see many cars in the lot because it was such a clear and warm winter day. The trail didn’t look like many had been on it that day but it had snowed the night before.
Straight away a man passed us while we started along the trail. He averted his eyes when he passed us so we didn’t dare ask him about the conditions. We followed footsteps in the snow for about a third of the way up. There was no point in trying to keep our feet dry because it was all snow, all the time.
We moved as quickly as we could through the switchbacks. It wasn’t really cold – in fact I removed some clothing because I got so hot – until we reached the clearing. Then the wind reminded us it is December with her blustery presence. Cold enough that you cannot take your gloves off for more than a few seconds.
A snow drift had covered the rocks and the trail so it was a little challenging to navigate around.
I led the way as we moved around the rocks to the narrow, single track section. This part is relatively short – maybe 600 metres – but it was impossible to find the trail.I started post holing along the trail but it was getting deeper and narrower. I kept having short visions of stepping down too deep, losing my balance and rolling down the mountain. Because we couldn’t move that fast, we were both getting colder by the minute. We decided post holing through all this snow was just not worth it.
We carefully turned around and made our way back through the opening in the trees. There was no time for photos or video. We were both freezing at this point so we ran/slide down the trail. On our way down we came across a couple of groups of hikers. It was such a quiet morning that we were startled by their appearance.
Once we got off the mountain, we ran down the road for about a kilometre because I had to get in 12 kilometres that day as part of a challenge. The run down was a lot of fun. We were slipping and sliding on the snow. Such fun.
I would love to hear from you in the comments below. Have you ever turned back on a hike or run because the snow was too deep?
thanks for sharing this amazing adventure in the snow, trail exploration in winter is quite a magical experience.
Do you have any advice for hiking on steep inclines/declines with icy/snowy rocks to hike up and down?
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