Our second day at McNamara Hut dawned beautifully with another bluebird sky. After shoveling in some insanely delicious breakfast, the group of us decided on the schedule for the morning. Will, Steve, and Chris all wanted to take out the skis/boards for some backcountry riding while everyone else decided on some snowshoeing. My shins were insanely sore to the touch and I wasn’t sure I could physically handle the pain of my ski boots, but I knew I was down for some skiing. After all, I had loaned my snowshoes to Kayla so I really had no other options. It was either head out on the skis or sit in the hut by myself. Naturally, it was time to suck it up again!
It took us a bit longer to strap on our skins, but Will and I eventually got our act together and caught up with the snowshoers. They were all climbing around on some rocks and launching into the crazy deep pow. We coined this smart people doing not-so-smart things. Coincidentally, this seemed to be the theme for the day!
Those of us on skis eventually made it up to the top of a nearby hill. The snow was light and fluffy; perfect powder really. The hill was pretty shallow and not quite what we had been hoping for, but I knew that it was all my shins could handle. I was worried that more skinning for the day would mean I couldn’t carry myself out the following morning!
Naturally, I flailed around in the waist-deep snow for what felt like 30 minutes before I managed to get my skis back on after removing my skins and switching my bindings to alpine mode. It was seriously like rookie day out there! I finally got my shit together and took my chance to make a few turns in the fluffy powder before skiing straight back to the hut. Even though the skiing wasn’t what we had hoped, I was loving being outside in the mountains!
After another insanely yummy meal, Steve and Will decided to head back out on the skins to explore the nearby (and inappropriately named!) Bald Knob. I knew my legs were toast so I hung back at the hut with the other snowshoers and did what any responsible adult would do: began drinking and sledding!
Let me preface this with a clarification: in actuality, I was drinking but was only an enabler for the suicidal sledding you are about to witness. Although I have been an active participant in our past sledding shenanigans, I knew that they weren’t an option for me this year. Without fail, our homemade sledding luge turns into a death wish on ice and I knew my still-healing back couldn’t take an accidental collision with a tree. For once in my life, I made the smart decision. Instead, I chose to continue consuming our wonderful backcountry concoctions while strapping my GoPro onto everyone else’s heads!
For the record, Nichole and Steve were both fine, although Nichole really did end up with a nose pouring blood! Luckily, we had a nurse, two nurse practitioners, a doctorate of nursing, a paramedic, and two police officers in the group, so a bloody nose wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle!
After we exhausted ourselves with our sledding antics, we all headed back inside McNamara Hut for a night full of card games, mulled wine, and more merriment with friends. It truly had been the perfect day and I found myself possibly excited for the ski out the following morning!
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Would you ever/have you ever built such an insane sledding luge?
What’s the worst injury you’ve had from sledding?