Snowshoeing Montgomery Pass
There’s a few more pictures from the day in the gallery.
On Saturday, our goal of climbing a few more 14ers this spring inspired us to get back up to altitude for just a bit. The forecast was for highs in the mountains of 0C (32F), but the winds were forecast to be near 95kph (~60mph). We decided that high winds would be good practice for the high peaks and went for it.
We left on the Montgomery Pass Trail (just north of Cameron Pass) at around 1:30pm. We were the only car in a parking lot filled with blowing and swirling snow. It’s so cold and windy out that Liv refused to get out of the yellow car. Eventually, we’re geared up and ready for the hike across the road.
Immediately after we enter the trees, the wind disappears! After 5 minutes of up-hill snowshoeing, we were melting in all of our gear and stopped to strip down to just a single fleece. Liv was having the time of her life tearing through the trees and running through the snow. The trail was well marked with blue blazes on the trees, but the ski tracks we were following all headed up to “the bowls”, and we had to break trail for the last half mile or so to treeline.
Within feet of the last few trees, the wind was blasting across the open snow at incredible speeds. Liv ran out into the wind-driven blizzard for just a few minutes and came back entirely coated in snow! I actually managed to step out into the wind and take a few pictures of the pass, but I didn’t have the gumption to hike the last 100m (~300ft). The hike down went quickly, and we were back at the car 4 miles and 3 hours after we started.
Fun! I’ve had the same experience with wind and trees – you think you’re heading into a nightmare and it just disappears in the trees.
It was definitely a nice surprise. I wish I’d gone ahead and finished out the trek to the pass, but it was some wicked wind up top. Maybe we’ll get up there again later this spring.