letter to a friend

Yo

I went for my first snowshoe last night on the conveniently located hill near our house: mount Royal. I had a most excellent time.

There was perfect:

• weather
• wind
• temperature
• lighting
• trails
• adventure level
• fresh snow
• long distance views
• steep parts
• scenic outlooks

and when I got home there was a big supper-salad already made.

Conditions are early season-perfect, with just enough snow to make the gully climb easy to do.

Another excellent thing are our new snowshoes, we moved on (up surely) from some very old plastic MSRs (which were getting old). Our new MSR Lightning model are better in many ways, not least the traction when climbing department. The new shoes rock and my steep climb exit variation gully route was completely easy, but not too easy. Part of this is the handy heel-lift device. But the other more important part is that these things are traction monsters.

One good thing for cyclists about snowshoeing is ski poles.Using poles really helps to make the bent-over road-racing bicycle position easier. Using the ski poles exercise the triceps, which is just what we cyclists need for the "assume-the-position" road bike seating/handlebar situation.

Ski poles also keep us from falling over in the snow, since snowshoes lack the gyroscopic effect of bicycle wheels.

Hopefully many more good adventures to come.