From inside a house or a car, the weather seemed ideal. It was sunny and blue skies. In actuality though, it was so windy, one could barely move. In the below picture, take a look at the pants on Suzuki san and I - they are blowing huge!
Actual Snow-shoeing was harder than I expected. It really works your calf muscles and thigh muscles in ways that regular hiking doesn't. But, it does increase your productivity as the bottom of the shoe has a cleat that grabs the snow allowing you to have better traction. The below picture is of Ruth, Sarah and I hiking up the first major slope in our shoes.
Unfortunately for us, the weather only got worse the more altitude we gained. The wind was so strong that if we stopped moving, we were nearly blown backwards. A few times, Ruth saved me from falling backwards into her. It was pretty scary and intense to think about how strong Mother Nature actually is. After losing nearly all visibility, barely being able to move forward and receiving really bad wind burn on our faces, we decided to turn around. There was no point in going further because we couldn't see anything anyways.
We chose an area where snow was built up against a tree to sit and have lunch. The tree blocked most of the wind so we could enjoy lunch without everything blowing away.
On our way back down, the weather cleared a lot. The below picture is of us girls and Kimura-san with the mountain in the background that was our possible goal destination given the weather was good. 
I really enjoyed snow shoeing even though I was incredibly sore afterwards. I hope to do it again in the future! In Japan, there is a superstition that if the weather is bad when you want it good for something in particular then it means you have been being a bad girl or boy. So, I guess from now on, I need to become a better behaved girl! :)
1 comment:
Looks like you had fun!! Glad you got to use the gators!! -Lisa
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