Snow Fall

Arizona weather is quite a deal. I’m sure that this is one of the only places in the country that dedicates the first 10 minutes of it’s prime time news to video’s, interviews and stories about…rain.  I know it’s the desert, our annual rainfall is around 7 – 8 inches, you read right, inches. However, the breathless fascination of our local media on reporting the rain is possibly a little crazy. Shot’s of rain in the streetlights, shots of rain hitting the street, shots of the reporters with raincoats on, standing in the rain, reporting on the rain.

But I digress. Snow, now snow is a different matter. Snow in Phoenix is worth reporting. We don’t have any though. But, last weeks El Nino storms dumped a lot on northern Arizona, and there was snow reporting.

When the snow hits the focus is on Flagstaff, the Snow Bowl and Sunrise, our states ski areas. Luckily there is a part of the state that shall remain unnamed, where there is generally more snow than the aforementioned locations.

That’s where my wife and I were last week for a day of snowshoeing, a sport that we started in a couple of years ago. What I love about snowshoeing is, if you can walk, you can snowshoe!  A fairly light learning curve, but there is an unknown challenge associated with it.

We were stopped along an unmarked, unbroken trail for a moment. I’m not sure exactly what I did to facilitate this, but, I fell down, just like that. Falling down was no problem, what surprised me was getting up is a problem.

“I can’t get up” as my wife smiled at me laying in the snow. 

Have you ever seen “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie’s little brother Randy fell in the snow and couldn’t get up?  I have lived the experience.

Just like Randy I was rolling in the snow “I can’t get up!” as my wife continued to smile at me, sure that   I was re-enacting the role, we do love the movie.

“Really, I can’t get up and I’m getting cold,”  An Aha moment as she realized I couldn’t get up.

“Roll over on your side” as she gave me a shove in the snow.

“I can’ roll over” my snowshoes are about 4 feet long and trying to move in them is like trying to move in mud.

Finally she got me on my side, braced my poles on each side and I was upright again.

Brushing the snow off me we continued on our trek.

I love simple sports with no learning curves.