Little snowflakes from the sky...Are you Winter's butterfly?
---Carleton Wolsey Washburne
February finally brought us out of our winter of COVID isolation into the bigger world. We went in search of respite from the dreary gray of a Birch Bay winter, and headed into the cryosphere -- that portion of the planet where water takes a solid form. Specifically, to put on cross-country skis and glide over some of it. We chose Lake Wenatchee State Park as our first stop, to partake of the groomed trails leading through fragrant ponderosa pine woods to the mountain-nestled lakeshore. Our travel instincts were well rewarded, as the Cascade Rainshadow kept all of the dreary gray on the shoreward side of the mountains and gave us sunshine and crisp winter air.
The winter of 2020-2021 has seen an unprecedented explosion in self-powered winter recreation in Washington. The State Parks & Recreation Commission has reported that sales of Sno-Park passes required to park at state-designated nordic skiing and snowshoeing trailheads have soared this winter to 2-3 times the level of previous winters! Sales of skis and snowshoes are running hot, too; many retailers are experiencing stock shortages. A Thursday at the north entrance to the park found only a half-dozen sno-parkers, though, so we were good to go for a pleasant, socially distanced run.
On skis a bit evolved from the slats of wood invented by the Scandinavians 6,000 years ago, we came to glide with grace (?) and speed (??) across the snow to delightful vistas. We procured our long, narrow, lightweight classic cross-country skis along with the boots and poles from a local vendor. After checking the map of groomed trails through the park at the trailhead kiosk, we layered up with a moisture-wicking base layer and wool socks, soft shell pants, fleece jackets and a gore-tex outer shell and a few more layers stufffed in our packs in case of inclement weather. We clicked the insulated boots into the bindings, grabbed poles in our gloved hands and we were ready to ski.
There is a wonderful joy to the rhythm of cross-country skiing. That initial push against the camber of the ski, ankles and knees bent, gliding forward, hips over feet, starts in motion the eventual inclusion of almost every muscle group. Activating your core, the arm opposite the gliding foot, with elbow bent at 90°, brings the pole down to the snow providing an additional push forward. And then you switch -- other foot glides, other arm pushes the pole to the snow, and again.....and again....... becoming a mesmerizing, transforming mantra. As cross-country aficionado Bill McKibben says: "it summons every muscle, every emotion. It's a mix of dash and endurance, long thigh-burning ascents followed by swooping downhills, the most profoundly aerobic sport on earth." Muscle memory delivered for us as we kicked and glided our way along the trails.
Acclimating to this snowy realm, we were reminded of the old saying that no two snowflakes are the same. Really? Of course, this falls into the category of hypotheses that can neither be proven nor disproven, a tricky place to be for us humans. But it is known that each water molecule is comprised of one atom of oxygen with two hydrogen atoms. As water freezes, the hydrogen atoms form bonds with other frozen molecules, forming
an orderly crystal lattice with hexagonal symmetry. The multitude of variations begin here, as a typical small snow crystal contains 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 water molecules, some of which have the element deuterium substituting for hydrogen, and individual oxygen atoms vary in the number of neutrons in their nucleus, from 8 to 10. Water molecules with "lighter" oxygen atoms (fewer neutrons) evaporate more readily In the atmosphere, while "heavier" ones condense more easily. Ice particles condensing in a supersaturated cloud coalesce around nuclei such as dust particles and grow. When they reach sufficient size and weight, they fall. During descent, the nascent snowflake may continue to grow, stop growing, or recirculate in the air column to experience a succession of growth patterns. If it passes through supercooled (below 32 deg F) liquid water droplets, rime will form on the edges. With all these differences in the conditions of formation, the possibilities are truly endless.
A blanket of snow has a profound effect on the landscape that it covers. Residents of that landscape have three choices: Sleep, Escape, or Resist.
The bears that sometimes create cherished memories for summertime campers at Lake Wenatchee are fond of the first choice, sleep. Burrowing into a snug den, their heart rate slows to 8 beats per minute, the heart muscle stiffens and blood congeals--similar in some ways to the symptoms of heart disease. But hormones that flush their circulatory system as spring approaches allow them to bounce back. They maintain muscle tone through the long sleep with electrical pulses through their muscle mass throughout hibernation.
Escape, of course, is the choice of many avian species. It takes 1/10th as much energy to fly to Mexico as it does to run or walk there. Of course, there may be any number of challenges along the way, but it seems to be usually worth the chance.
Resistance is the path taken by Lake Wenatchee's snowshoe hares, pikas, ravens, Canada jays......and human visitors. The hares utilize separate hair follicles to produce a coat of white fur for the winter, brown fur for the summer, for an excellent camouflage. Burrowing animals must take care to return to the surface occasionally, as bacterial decay in their subnivean tunnels produces CO2 that would asphyxiate them. Winter forage gets a little rough, too, limited to buds, twigs, bark, evergreens, cannibalization and re-ingesting feces to fully digest the last bit of roughage.
And then there's us! Armed with layers of clothing, safety gear, avalanche forecasts/beacons/probes and an adventurous spirit, we are in full resistance mode!
More than 5 million Americans enjoyed the sport in the winter of 2019-2020, below the heyday of cross-country skiing in the late 1970's but a big increase from just a few years ago. Significantly higher numbers are expected from this season, when the stats are totaled up.
Unfortunately, at the same time, winter is becoming sparser as average winter temperatures rise due to spiking greenhouse gas concentrations. As McKibben has said, "If sports were like species, cross-country skiing would be on the endangered species list." The two sno-park areas closest to our home are located at an elevation of about 2,000', already becoming somewhat marginal for good snow conditions even in the prodigiously snowy Cascade Mountains.
Cross-country skiing won't disappear. It will merely retreat, gradually, into higher and colder places, with some expensive and complicated mitigations, like artificial snow making, to adapt to warming. It will likely become a pastime of the wealthier members of our society, as it was in the beginning of recreational skiing. Already, there has been an announcement that the seasonal Sno-Park Permit for parks with groomed trails will increase from $80 to $120 for 2021-2022 season.
Expensive, but not as much as alpine skiing: at the nearby Stevens Pass Ski Area--acquired by Vail Resorts in 2018-- daily lift tickets will set a skier back more than $100 and the seasonal Epic Pass, which also allows admittance to other Vail Resorts properties, is nearly $1,000.
Our day on the trails at Lake Wenatchee State Park was just what we needed: a respite from work and gray days, among snowy pines, accompanied by the satisfying screech of our skis, gliding through the cryosphere.
--David
Lake Wenatchee State Park is established on the lands of the Wenatchi (P'Squosa) Nation appropriated without treaty or recompense by the US Government between 1855 and 1894 and transferred to the State of Washington in 1903.