Snow Course

Terry and I arrive at 10 and met Ned Tibbits, the instructor, and the other students, Kelly and Jasmine, a mother and daughter team. We got on snowshoes and hiked to Echo Lake where we ate lunch. Along the way Ned stopped frequently to explain various things like reading the clouds and past avalanche areas. After lunch we hiked on the actual frozen Echo Lake. The weather was warm and the snow slushy. At one point I post holed down and my other leg jammed in the slush getting all wet. Shortly afterwards we got off the lake not wanting to break through. At the end of the lake we climbed over some small snow covered hills, but by then we were all tired especially me. So I was glad when we stopped. Hiking 4-5 miles in the snow was exhausting. We set up our tents, got water in a nearby stream, carved a bench and table in the snow, and sat there eating our dinner and chatting about the day. Hopefully I get more sleep tonight .

Terry and I at a snow covered Tahoe Rim Trail / PCT marked. By the time we get here they’ll be no snow.

Echo Lake covered in snow and ice. We snowshoed across the lake and beyond to our campsite..

Our encampment.

We woke at sunrise, got dressed, had breakfast, and headed out into the back country at about 9AM. Up numerous hills, across snow bridges over small streams we arrived where we could see Pyramid Peak and numerous other ones. I’ve been slowing the group down because I’m not used to this elevation (about 8000 feet). I’ve had to stop and catch my breath. Also I’m always last – trailing everyone. I have to remember I have to hike my own hike. Next we headed back and went down a steep slope. Sliding and stepping we went down and down. Teaching us how to traverse steep slopes in the snow. It was fun once we got over our initial fear of the height. We got back to camp at about 4:30 PM exhausted.

On the last day we did safe ascent and descent. Without snowshoes we learned how to use our ice axes to slow our descent. This included going down head first on our backs on a steep slope. Simply put we held our ice axes up to our chests with the point out then rolled on our stomach and jammed the point into the snow which caused us to swing around head first and then to slow and stop our descent. After numerous attempts we headed back to camp, got our packs and headed out. It took us about 3 1/2 hours of snowshoeing to get back to our cars, say our goodbyes and head out.