McGregor Mountain Blog

It has been a great holiday season here at the lodge. It’s so nice having guests around enjoying Christmas in the Rockies. We had Wassail (now dubbed McGregor’s “Wassupal” {pronounced Wa-soo-pull}) hot and ready in the lobby, a fire roaring, and just the right timing for a good snowstorm to have a tried and true White Christmas to complete the picture…

We have had some guests send us pics from their recent visit and I postes a few pictures here… Enjoy!

Michael

http://www.mcgregormountainlodge.com/lodge-info/guest-photos.htm

Yesterday afternoon it was just plain nasty out! It had been so long since I have gone on a snowshoe in bad weather, I needed my fix! I decided to head toward Lake Haiyaha, as I could find my way out of those drainages in a white out or in the pitch dark, so I felt comfortable heading out in less than optimal conditions. It wasn’t terribly cold, I’d say low 20’s or high teens, but the wind was fierce and it was snowing hard!
I made great time up to Dream Lake, using all of the winter trails to save some time and distance – though it makes it a lot steeper. It got interesting, as it usually does, once I turned from Dream Lake up toward Haiyaha. The drifting here is always severe, making footing a little iffy. But I plodded along, up up up. The snow kept coming down but the wind began to calm a bit until I turned west and headed down to the lake. Here the wind was ripping though the canyon. The closer I got to the lake, the nastier it became. There were moments where I couldn’t see 25 feet in front of me, all the blowing and falling snow made it pretty thick. I got to about 100 yards from the lake, took a final picture, then decided I had had enough. It was getting dark, the snow was getting deep (a few inches fell in the hour it took me to get to the lake!), and I was ready to have the wind at my back instead of in my face.
The hike back was beautiful as night fell in Rocky! I had the trails to myself and was able to really enjoy the calming ferocity of this amazing season in the high country. In the trees I could see the wind ripping above the roof of the forest, but on the ground it was calm, with snow falling almost vertically.
When I got back to the bear lake parking lot, there were a few inches of fresh snow covering everything! I made it back to McGregor to find Brat and Little Boy grazing in the snow covered grass in front of the lobby. What and evening in the mountains!

Here are a few pictures… enjoy!

Michael