Snowshoeing in the Cascades on a Glorious Day

The last few days have been very cold (high temperatures around 32 and lows in the teens) for Seattle, but they have also been cloudless and gorgeous, which is rare this time of year. I will take the cold to see the sun during the winter.

Today my friend, Kim Judd, and I braved the cold and went snowshoeing. We drove to Crystal Mountain ski resort, which is about 40 minutes from our house. While we have no snow in Enumclaw, Crystal has been open for skiing for a month. When we got there the temperature was fourteen degrees. Our route took us up 2,300 feet so the temperature at the summit of the peak we climbed was in single digits. But I did not get cold and it is not because I dressed warmly. In fact, on the ascent I had only a long sleeve shirt on -- no gloves and no hat most of the way. We were ascending rapidly and that generates a lot of heat.

We climbed a peak northwest of the ski resort and once we got above tree level the views were fabulous. Here are some photos:
Here is Kim making a sharp ascent. This was hard work on snowshoes.
In this picture you can see Rainier rising well above the ski trail of Crystal Mountain.
Looking east of Rainier we had a great view of Mount Adams and its surrounding mountains.
At the summit this little bird flew up and seemed to enjoy the view as much as we did. What was he doing at that elevation in the middle of winter?
At the top of a good climb
As we got close to our starting point, the sun was setting and the rich golden glow from the evening sunset cast a magical light on everything around us.

It was a wonderful day in the amazingly beautiful Cascades. I wish you could have joined us.