Last Sunday, Saveria and I and our entire Sierra Club WTC Group 4 should have played the lotto, because we were lucky enough to be living the perfect Southern California life. On Saturday we were able to hike and snow shoe in a true winter wonderland in our backyard playground, The Angeles National Forest and enjoying beach weather on Sunday.

The week before our scheduled hike the weather was warm and our snow travel day was looking dry, but then right on cue Wednesday evening it stormed and poured and then poured some more, but up at 7000 ft. that rain was turning into wonderful snow.

It was a perfect day Saveria and I, the leaders and all the students had a fantastic time exploring the winter wonderland. The Mt Waterman area proved to be perfect for our hike. We spent some time getting used to trekking in snow shoes for awhile then moved on to some snow travel techniques, especially the plunge step which is one of my favorite things to do. There has not been a ton of snow locally, so getting out to sharpen our snow travel skills for our upcoming Mt. Whitney trip have been limited and this was perfect for our training. We covered side steps, front pointing, changing direction, and descending, the plunge step as I said. We are just over a month out until our big climb and things are going well with our cardio and weight programs, this chance to get some good snow practice was just what we needed.

Next step for the WTC class is our three day snow camp in the Sierra's. I think this incredible day in the mountains and snow created a lot of excitement and confidence, more time at altitude and valuable training time in the snow for our upcoming trip....stay tuned for the report back from snow camp.

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