Untouched Powder and my Own Two Feet: The Effort and Joy of my First Snowshoe Hike

By Roland Lämmerer

I’m not thinking about anything else. It’s just me, my board, and the snow. The sun is shining very brightly, even through my darkened snowboard goggles. On my snowboard I’m riding down the slope, which we hiked up only a few minutes ago. The snow is so soft that it feels like I am riding on a big cloud. The sun gets shaded at nearly every turn by a big wall of snow. I can feel some of the small snow crystals melting on my cheek. I drive through the forest full of white trees. The limbs are bent down by the weight of the snow. There are a few fresh deer tracks in the snow, and I stop to look around in hope of seeing one deer or goat. I can hear the other guys behind me, screaming and yelling, full of joy. We are all centered now, to get on track for the last 500 meters of this ride. I’m trying to make signs in the snow by riding in the track of my friend in front of me. Finally, I can see the point where we started this morning. In all my years on a snowboard, I’ve never had a moment which compares to the effort and joy of my first snowshoe hike.

Going with friends who have similar skills contributed to the joy of that day. My best friend asked me if I was interested in a snowshoe hike. At first, I said no because I was afraid of getting left behind, but then he told me who else would go with him. I knew all of them, and a few are very good snowboarders and skiers with many experiences with the snowshoes. That was good because they knew the area, but I thought that my stamina wouldn’t be enough to keep up with them. But the reason why I agreed to the snowshoe hike was that he told me the other people who would join use. Some guys had the same or less stamina than I did, so I didn’t have to be scared that I would get lost on this trip. My answer was very clear after I thought of this: “Yes, I will.”

I checked my equipment again and again, looking forward to using it for the first time. My parents gave me snowshoes, poles and a backpack that I can strap on my snowboard. Until that day I had only looked at them and [rejoiced like a little kid the first day I would use them. Because I have practiced snowboarding since I was twelve, I had very good standard equipment. It proved itself very often on the slope, never mind if it was sunny or stormy. But there is a big difference between snowboarding and hiking clothes. I had very good clothes for the ride down, but what’s with the hike up? Your body produces a lot of heat while you are walking, so the normal snowboard clothes would be too hot. I got a new jacket, a windbreaker, thinner gloves, and sunglasses. The gloves and the cap are just for the first 200 meters, then you don’t need then anymore, but you need them ready at hand in case you stop. Especially on the vertex, you have to be fast to change your clothes because it gets cold as soon as you stop walking.

Downloading new music for my iPod was one of the important preparations for me. When I’m on the snowboard, I always carry my Ipod with me. The right music pushes me a lot and gives me more power. The music I listen to depends on the day and my mood. Therefore, I had to choose the right music, which wasn’t as easy as I thought. At first I searched on my drive, the music I always listen to, but then I decided to get something different, something new. After one week of searching on the Internet, I believed that I found the best music for this trip. In fact, I didn’t pick one kind of music. I mixed it all up and got a play list with songs for each part of the hike. For the first 30 minutes, I selected some easy music like reggae. After a while, when I start to get tired, I got some faster music, a kind of punk rock. Fast and stupid, that’s what I like. This should push me for the whole distance. Finally, if I reach the peak, I would want something to come down a little bit. I thought the best music for the few minutes to unlatch and ride down should be a gentle drum ‘n’ bass. After I had my perfect playlist, I hoped that the weather would cooperate.

A few weekends passed until there was perfect weather. One point on which everybody agreed was the weather. We didn’t want to go on stormy, ugly day. All of us listened intently to the weather forecast. We knew that it is not very easy find a nice day on which everybody had enough time. However we tried it. There are only a few days in the winter when everything is perfect. The best month for this is mostly late December. At this time you get the most meters of fresh fallen snow, and the bottom to the top of the hill is a snow mantle. In the following months, the snow will not be as fluffy anymore because there are some warm days and very cold nights. This happens especially on days without clouds. The upper film melts on such a day and in the night it freezes. Then you have a thin ice on the fluffy snow, which isn’t really nice to ride on. When it snows again on this coat, the risk of avalanches increases dramatically. On the opposite side of slope where we hiked up is a dangerous avalanche hillside. We couldn’t wait too long for our trip or we wouldn’t be able to make it. Finally, we got a marvelous day a few days after Christmas. It snowed about 30 centimeters two nights before; in fact, we had about one and a half meters of wonderful untouched powder. This would be a perfect day for my first snowshoe hike.

Standing at the bottom of the slope, looking up to the top, gave me a small feeling of fear. We drove about 30 minutes, with a Mitsubishi Pickup belonging to my cousin. It was big enough to carry six people and their equipment, to the point where we intended to start from. The road was so snowy that we required all four snow chains to get up to this point. After we arrived, everybody began to sort his equipment. I prepared myself and waited for my friends. I looked up to the slope, and I couldn’t even see the top of it. I thought to myself: “Can I handle this?” But there was no time to think about it, because the first guys were already started. I started my Ipod and was queuing as the fourth. The first one had the hardest job, to create the trail in which all of the following would walk. After about one hour, I doffed my gloves and took off my hat because I was already sweating, and it was a pleasant break for me. When the music changed to punk rock, I felt that it pushed me a little bit. Two of my friends and I configured the end of the queue. The better ones were about a hundred meters in front of us. It was okay to walk slower, because we couldn’t lose them anyway, by the reason of the trail. We had a break about every 20 minutes and talked too each other, took pictures, and caught our wind. It was very relaxing and we had no pressure to reach the top in time. I was breathless and thought this would never end as I saw the others waiting for us not far from the top. After three and a half-hours of climbing, we crested all together. I was speechless when I saw this gorgeous panoramic view. You could see miles over miles, apex after apex. Everybody was in hurry to change his wet t-shirt and his hiking clothes to the snowboard clothes in the cold wind on the peak. The time up there was definitely too short, but the best part began after we recovered our breaths and got our equipment ready, was the ride down on this slope full of powder.

When we arrived at our car, everybody had a big smile on his face, and so did I. We packed our equipment into the car and drove down to the village. After we drank the beer of success all together, everybody went home tired but happy. I honestly can say that this was one of the best days in my life, and maybe the best sleep too.