It's days like today that I praise the snowgods, and my parents for buying me my favorite pair of mittens. We had a lovely backcountry tour today, but it was darn cold.
Fortunately, I'm someone who layers up and I know when to take out the big guns (the sheepskin mittens) when I need to.
Despite temps in the single digits, it didn't take much uphill shlogging to start generating some heat and a couple of times I had to take the mittens off to cool off my hands.
Let me tell you that I've had hands so cold that I cried like a baby—a cold baby—so I'll take sweaty palms any day.
I was even able to finagle a few photos during our ski while wearing the puffy mittens, which have zero digital mobility. Where's the challenge in using your fingers?
In all seriousness, I usually pack an extra pair of something for my hands. Today I had a thinner pair of Marmot mittens in my pack. Other days I have a pair of spring gloves.
Today we took the slow Wilderness lift up the hill at Bolton Valley and then ducked into their backcountry trails. We started climbing through the encrusted trees and headed for Stowe View, and behold, there actually was a view today (above)! Really quite nice.
Today we're in the calm before the storm. Northern Vermont is expecting more than a foot of snow to fall during the day on Sunday. Most excellent.
