I’m organizing a snowshoe outing tomorrow. The irony here is that I don’t know diddlysquat about snowshoes or snowshoe trails. I’ve been snowshoeing exactly one time, but I really liked it and it’s a long weekend and I’d like to get out into the mountains so here I am: trying to organize something I have no fucking clue about. It’s always sort of weird when you want to do something, but wish you had someone else to do it for you because you don’t know how. Sort of scary in a way, but I suppose this is how one learns aquires new skills. And it’s better than sitting around waiting for someone else to do it for you. Cuz lemme tell ya: that ain’t never gonna happen.
UPDATE: Thwarted by rain in the mountains. DRAT!

Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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esther
January 15th, 2005 at 11:42 pm
Damn! I wanted to do that with my extra day off too! Unfortunately I have no driver’s license, so it involves convincing my friends, who are lazy non-active butts without snow chains, to, um, gett of their butts, and purchase snow chains. Anyway, portland is totally covered in a 1 inch veneer of ice so slipping and sliding over to my friend’s house 10 blocks away has been the excitement for the weekend.
heidijanet
January 16th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
be CAREFUL!! with the whole rain/snow/rain/snow it’s prime avalanche season right now.
i’ve snowshoed a bit, and spent a season working the lifts at snowbird (which meant an avalanche safety course) but was present when several backcountry telemark skiiers and snowshoers caused avalanches. be sure to have the following if you go:
- tell people which trail you are specifically hiking and for how long
- stay on ridge lines
- carry radios
- Use poles w/o straps
- only one person at a time on slopes 30 degrees or more
- and to be super safe carry beacons
and listen for any whumping and watch for cracks in the snow.
so there. NOW go have fun.