A few weeks ago, Kari asked if she could come out from Missouri to visit us. In January. I was excited, and started making plans for the things we’d do while she was here.
Her original travel plans happened to coincide with the coldest temperatures we’d seen in years. The weather forecast called for highs that were below zero. That would really put a damper on our plans to be outdoors, and Kari was worried about airline flight cancellations. She bumped her trip a week, which turned out to be a wise choice because her original flight through Denver was cancelled. Plus, the forecast called for much warmer temperatures the following week.
So she showed up, and the thermometer was in the 30s, which was much better for outdoor activities. After a few days with her friend Denise up in Kalispell, she dropped in at our place. We had a grand time chatting and eating and playing games, waiting for an opportunity to do something outside. But the rain came down, and the temperatures plummeted, and we ended up with a quarter-inch layer of ice on everything. Here’s what our driveway looked like:
In this photo it just looks like it’s wet, but that’s all ice. And after plowing two feet of snow off our driveway, we’d kept the pavement clear with shovels. So the nice smooth driveway became a nice smooth (and steep) ice rink. The only way to even walk on it was with crampons.
Well, we’re hardy Montanans and we wanted to show Kari a good time, so we pulled out our sleds.
Whoa.
Sliding down the icy tire tracks was absolutely crazy. By the time we’d get to the bottom of a switchback, we’d be cruising so fast we couldn’t even steer to make the turn. Here are Pepper and Kari roaring down the driveway:
And, unable to make the corner, wiping out in the pile of plowed snow in the switchback:
It was probably the best sledding we’ll ever see. And there was absolutely no way we’d be able to get a car down if we wanted to leave. We’d simply slide right off into a snowbank, or (worse) over the edge and into the forest. We talked about whether our v-bar chains would’ve helped, but I’m honestly not sure. I think they would’ve bit into the ice enough to get us down, but didn’t want to test my theory. So we had a blast sledding at Mach 2 and laughing as we wiped out on the corners.
In this video, I couldn’t steer very well because I was holding my camera, so I ended up spinning through the center snowy strip. Kari easily beat me in our race.
After sledding, we donned snowshoes and gave her a tour of our property, including a hike through the neighboring national forest. The two-foot-deep snow had a layer of ice on top, so we had to basically punch our snowshoes through the ice, sink down to our knees, and then step again. It was hard work, but the forest was beautiful.
We had a good time, even though we couldn’t do all the things we’d hoped. We snapped a quick photo under our continually-growing front door icicles.
Of course we made a pilgrimage to Rosa’s.
It was wonderful to see my sis for a few days, and I hope she can come back again sometime soon. In the summer.