White to Night – Fresh Power on the Summit, 10/23/2015

Late Thursday afternoon as the last vestiges of the latest snow were clearing the area I thought about riding the tram up to the summit to get some photos in the late afternoon sun.  The only problem was that other than the summit, all of Albuquerque was bathed in sunshine.  The peak was socked in with a layer of cloud that would just not dissipate.

I had a full morning schedule so by the time late afternoon rolled about I was ready to try my snowshoes out on what was supposed to be 8 to 10 inches of fresh snow.

As you can see in the image above, the sidewalk is completely filled with something like 3 feet of drifted snow, while a couple of hundred feet away on the exposed ridge there was no snow at all.

The boundary sign that marks the start of the connecting trail to the Guest House about two miles away is in the middle of the image above, and on the left of the one below.  Someone has broken a trail into the woods in the second image, but since that is a sheltered path, I was pretty certain that it would already be packed down and well trodden.  I chose the connecting trail with its open exposure and great views.

After a quick slog through a couple of  one to two feet drifts, the trail became more exposed and the snow depth dropped to somewhere between 6 to 8 inches.  

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