With about 6″ of snow fall in the past 24 hours, I had a great opportunity to do some stomping (my term for the clunky snow shoeing) at da’ Moon.  I really do want to write about something other than my outdoor clothing choices.  Mostly, I want to write about something else that is near and dear to me — training.  But, until then.

It turns out that medium socks (a heavier Smartwool pair), gaiters, gym pants, snow pants, a thermal shirt (“heavy, just-over-base layer” shirt), and my Patagonia Guide Softshell (with ski gloves, of course) was basically too heavy for mid-20s (mid-10s/windchill) and overcast.  I didn’t really think I was trucking, but I did cover a fair bit of ground in 1:15 or so.

I’ll close with a reminder (last mentioned on a long dead cs.pitt.edu blog) that the reason I adore snow shoeing is that I can bushwack just about anywhere.  The leaves are down.  The ground cover is carpeted with snow.  And, short of dense gaggles of branches, trees, or scrub (prickers being the only real possible “problem”), you can walk straight lines up, down, and across just about anything.

This is ultra-cool when you spend a lot of time, on a mountain bike, following pre-laid track.