Last Sunday, I joined 9 other ladies from the Sweaty Betties group for a 5-mile guided snowshoe hike through Snoqualmie National Forest. Being from Florida, I never had a chance to participate in snow-related activities so whenever I see snow as an adult, I get super giddy and jump/play in it like a kid.
I quickly learned after the first mile that snowshoeing is hard work and was very thankful for the forest ranger at the front of the group working extra hard to create a path for the rest of us. I also realized that I grabbed the wrong gloves in the morning; rather than taking my husband’s extra-warm, waterproof gloves, I decided to grab my not-so-waterproof cloth gloves. Smooth move. By the time we stopped for lunch, I could no longer feel my fingers but was hoping they’d warm up and didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.
Fast forward to the post-lunch hike and I realized I could no longer grip my poles since my hands were frozen and extremely painful. Still didn’t want to make a fuss so I tried to hide how much pain I was really in (dumb idea). At one of our rest stops, one of the forest rangers realized something wasn’t quite right and asked me to take off my gloves. I started to panic a little when I realized my hand was swollen and I couldn’t remove the glove. The forest ranger touched my gloves and told me they were frozen and spent a few minutes yanking them off my hand. Some of the other girls had handwarmers and one of them gave me her super warm mittens for which I was super thankful and almost cried. I was really embarrassed since I’m usually well-prepared for these types of things.
I was much happier once my hands were warm and realized I wasn’t going to end up in the hospital with frostbite. Won’t make that mistake again. Oh, and picture #2 below was taken when my hands were still functional. Notice ice starting to accumulate on my head.
Rebecca on the Run 