Egyptian Snowballs: A Snow Shoeing Adventure with Two Unlikely Heroes

Facilitator Farah writes about the recent FIUTS trip to Steven's Pass.

A group of students took a day trip up to Steven's Pass with FIUTS to enjoy the snow. This blog post by Farah Al Toukhi tells the story of her adventure with snowshoeing. Farah is a junior currently studying Biology. She is from Egypt and has been a facilitator for FIUTS for two years as well as a Student Board member.

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning and for once wasn’t cursing the unholy hour I had to rise. I was looking forward to the awesome day ahead of us, even though I was rather upset I wasn’t going to take a skiing lesson as I had originally planned. But I conceded that snowshoeing was going to be fun too. I had no idea what the day had in store.

The trip up to Steven’s Pass went as smoothly as possible, at least from a participant’s perspective. Once we arrived, there were several people interested in the idea of taking the shuttle to Nordic Center to partake in some snowshoeing and cross country skiing and leaving the other snow sports for the mighty of heart. However, once we got there and learned more about the available activities, all but one other person decided that they were, in fact, mighty of heart and took the shuttle back to join in the fun. So the only two that were left to snowshoe, were my Egyptian friend Ahmed and I.

Our journey started as peacefully and with as much ease as a walk in the park which gave us adequate space to get used to the awkward shoes, we’d be spending a lot of time in. We reached some signs directing to a Lanham Lake and decided to set the goal of reaching it, thinking it would be near-by. Boy, were we wrong. We continued to hike uphill for another hour and a half until we came across another hiker presumably coming back from the lake, telling us it was only another 20 minutes away. He lied. We hiked uphill and uphill and uphill for another hour or so. Thank goodness Ahmed had whatever inkling of motivation he had because I was just about ready to leave him and head back at many points of that journey, not counting that many times we took a good tumble.

After what I claim to be eons and a climb that seemed to go vertically upwards, we finally reached the lake. It was one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever set my eyes on. Frozen and covered with inches of snow, it was astounding to see how the trees surrounded it. As Ahmed and I took in the sight and congratulated ourselves on this accomplishment we asked ourselves an important question, “Now what?”

We figured we had time to rest there before heading back. We had a celebratory feast (salt and vinegar Pringles) and carved our initials into a nearby tree to commemorate our triumph. As we made our way back we followed our trail but this time the trail led to a star in the snow, artistically drawn with pee.

We began to panic as we could not see our original trail. We took another one, but that lead halfway around the lake and to a group of campers who led us the right way.

For those of you who might think you might be missing out on the skiing by going snowshoeing, have no fear, for on your way down you’ll have the opportunity to partake in some butt skiing! Neither of us managed to go downhill, upright. We tumbled and slipped and slid our way back to the Nordic center, gathering as much snow as our pants could hold, just in time to take the shuttle back and meet with our facilitators.

So grab a buddy and try snowshoeing. Fair warning though, I can’t guarantee you won’t miss the snowshoes after you take them off.

 Want to take a trip with FIUTS? Take a look at our events calendar to see what's coming up.