December 19
19 degrees
snowing

so, my goal was to hike for an hour. I debated where to go and whether or not I should trail run instead or ski or what-have-you. I ended up choosing the Stowe Pinnacle Trail which is in general, one of the most accommodating trails around. It’s not nearly as steep as most and it’s only 1.6 miles to the top.

What i wasn’t sure about was the conditions. And sure enough, they sucked. 6-8 inches of fresh, fluffy snow on top of shear ice. It wasn’t all ice. Just the parts with an incline. Which is 90% of the trail. In the beginning it wasn’t too bad. A few people had been there and the trail was tamped down enough to be passable.

But after a certain point I was breaking trail. At this point i needed to watch for the blazes and watch my footing.


This is where it started to get really treacherous. All of the rocks, of which there are many, were covered in a layer of thick, slick ice. There was nothing for traction. So, after 40 minutes of up, i gave up and turned around. Good thing, cause it took me 30 minutes to get down (about 15 minutes more than it should have). There were a few crashes and there were lots of feet skiddering out from under me at totally random moments.

Right now I’m feeling stoked that I got out without breaking a wrist or a femur or something like that. The positive side is that it was beautiful in the woods and the snow was just starting. Very quiet and calm and nice to get outside for a little while. And really a good workout. Despite the tricky footing, my heartrate was up the whole time.