Now it's time to discuss how Jeff and I managed to get back down the mountain. Remember, this hike was originally going to be a leisurely "stroll around the parking lot." That turned into a walk up a winding drive. Which consequently turned into an off-road adventure through the snow, up, up, up a mountain path.
The real adventure set in when we decided to turn around and head back down. Oh man. The nearly non-existent tread on my Ugg boots was fully caked with snow at this point. Let's also make it known that the snow was so iced-over that our steps were hardly creating footprints in the snow. At least, they were not creating indentations on the top portion of our hike down. The path was a little more worn in and churned up as you made it to the lower parts of the trail.
As Jeff so elegantly put it, "Heading back down the mountain [was] pretty tough when your boots have the traction of plates duct-taped to your feet.
How do you remedy such poor hiking conditions? You give up and laugh your butt off! After falling for about the 50th time, (sometimes gracefully, sometimes not... usually with a thud, if I'm being honest) I decided to slide. I crouched down, feet flat to the ground, arms trailing behind me for balance, and let gravity work it's magic. I managed to make record time! It was absolutely incredible, haha. And SO MUCH FUN. Thankfully, Jeff used his body as a barricade between me and some of the ill-placed trees that I would periodically make a bee-line for. He also used his body as a roadblock so that I wouldn't continue sliding all the way down the side of the mountain when the path got particularly twisty. How I didn't manage to knock him off his feet, I have no idea!
As we came closer to the trail entrance, the path got more bumpy and chopped up by footprints. My super awesome method of sliding down the mountain wasn't working quite so well, anymore. Balancing on my own two feet and walking down the mountain wasn't working quite so well, either.
At Jeff's suggestion, I maintained a death-grip on his backpack, and let him sled-dog me the rest of the way down. My feet were going every which direction, but at least I was moving forward and not continually tipping over.
I have NO IDEA why he wasn't having any problems. Literally, none, haha. He was just plodding along, steady as ever, patiently watching my chaos and ever willing to lend a helping hand. Even with me hanging off his backpack, swinging too and fro, his steady gait couldn't be deterred.
Below are two pictures of me before I decided to give in to the ice gods, lower my center of gravity, and use my boots as sleds. At a snail's pace, I would hop from tree to tree, trying my hardest to stay vertical. (The pictures truly don't do it justice!)
As difficult and sweat-inducing as all of this was, it was by far my favorite part of our ski trip. I haven't laughed so much and so hard in quite a while! And, believe it or not, Jeff is still willing to take me hiking again in the future!
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