Snow fun
This ski season sure has been a strange one. From the Saharan sand that turned the sky and the mountains golden red, to the winter ending prematurely in the middle of February with 19*c in the Alps – not to mention being in the midst of a global pandemic and unprecedented restrictions to our personal freedoms. If you've been feeling like things have been getting a little apocalyptic recently, don't worry – it is not just you – you are not alone.
December started hopeful, filled with a great early snowfall, but turned into a prolonged lockdown and the general realisation that the ski lifts probably weren't going to open. And so it came to pass – they have remained shut all season.
The flipside has been a renaissance in ski-touring and snowshoe retailers being totally sold out.
If you were anything like me, you had probably barely heard of snowshoeing, and if you had it was mentally relegated to the frozen wildernesses of Canada or the Arctic. Let me tell you, this is not just a mode of conveyance or survival! Indeed, this is as fine a leisure activity as any.
Believed to have been invented some 4-6000 years ago by the people of Central Asia, it is one of the oldest sporting activities still in existence. The equipment has evolved somewhat, much as tennis racquets have, but for anyone who watched Björn Borg and his ilk you will know that modern gear is not winning any points for style – give me a pair of branch and elk hide trotters any day.
It goes like hiking, and with the poles included it is a whole-body workout (think cross-trainer). The snow has this power to totally knacker your legs; the effort of wading through resistance and stabilising every crunching step really takes its toll! Walking a flat trail burns approx. 369 calories per hour, but why would you do that when you could be wading uphill through near waist-high snow and burning off over 1k per hour? (And having a blast!).
A pristine snow-covered mountain slope just cries out for despoiling footsteps – there is something incredibly satisfying in 'breaking trail' – as it's called in the game. Even if the car park is still in sight, somehow being off the path and using this simple equipment gives you the feeling of being off on an adventure and going somewhere 'nobody has gone before.' That's freedom. The freedom of the mountain!
Downhill: this is the bomb. You fix the snowshoe so the heel won't lift up, then you run / half tumble down the slope. The trick is to lift the leg again before it has finished sinking down, and this gives you an amazing floating feeling as you storm down through the snow (feels close to walking on water).
Dangers: watch out for avalanches (check the conditions and warnings, be prepared, carry a shovel and a GPS transmitter, and take the necessary training – to be honest I didn't do any of this, but I was in areas I knew well and had been advised were safe to traverse by experienced mountain guides and ski instructors) stay away from slopes over 45* (unless you want to make it into a hybrid sport more like ice-climbing – seriously though, be careful), carry water, a map, all the stuff you would usually wear on a hike. I just wore the same clothes for snowboard and that kept me pretty dry. The snowshoes will go on the bottom of your hiking shoes (waterproof and warm definitely advisable), and they can also go on the bottom of your snowboard boots if you fancy hiking up the piste with your board.
The best day out I did was a group tour with Snow Yoga, a company based in Morzine who have teamed up with Magical Snow Treks. We had a guided forest walk with the lovely Simone who filled us in on the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the local fauna and wildlife. We made snow angels, threw snowballs, drank ceremonial cacao, and then got down to a bit of Qi Gong and Yoga. The whole experience was deeply peaceful and really helped to get me into a zen state. I hadn't done yoga in the cold before, so this was a new experience for me too. I have to say that actually doing something in a group with other people was so novel – I loved this respite from the lockdown restrictions.
This year has been full of disappointments, but I've also learned how true it is that when one door closes, so another door opens. I've tried things I never would have done otherwise, and that opens up new possibilities for the future. Moral of the story? Never despair at the state of the world. Do not focus on what you can't do but get out there and do what you can.
Live Wild!