I tried snowboarding and skiing in Rusutsu. I am marginally better with skiing. At least I can somehow move myself in the direction I need to go to when on skis. On the snowboard, I’m pretty much at the mercy of gravity, I essentially slide down the mountain in the direction of the slope. I fell more times than I care to admit and my body is pretty sore today. So I decided to do something with less momentum like snowshoeing.

The start of the snowshoeing session did not start in great weather conditions. As our snowshoe group of four slowly trudged up a hill towards a ridge, we were buffeted by high winds and snow.

We were only 5 minutes into the hike and I am questioning my decision to go snowshoeing as I looked at the back of our guide. He was climbing higher and higher uphill through thigh deep snow. The brochure had advertised the trip as “downhill snowshoeing”….hmmmmmm.

It’s so windy at the top of the ridge, the trees are growing sideways.

The landscape was dark, moody and windswept, like a scene out of Wuthering Heights, with snow.

Sensing the collective group fatigue at this point, perhaps our ragged breathing gave it away, our guide took us to a sheltered nook away from the wind for a coffee break.

As we left our little snow oasis, the sun started to peek out from the clouds and it stopped snowing. We came to the edge of a gully and as we peered over the edge, our guide told us to sit on our butts and enjoy the ride down.

The scenery was incredible. All the trees covered in puffy pillows of snow.

Our tracks making a temporary path along the hillside.

We make our way slowly through the trees.

And through the valley.

It was so peaceful and quiet.

The rest of the journey fulfilled the brochure’s promise and remained downhill. Whew!