New years day 2007!!!

What an amazing day it was. Early this morning two of my coworkers and I went snow shoeing in the Wastach Wilderness a few minutes from where I grew up. We headed up a canyon called Big Willow which I had been in before but never really explored that far up. Anyways, the snow was falling and it was totally socked in, the canyon was very steep. Levi had been through surgery just a short while ago, John was sick with what, we aren't sure, and I hadn't gotten to bed till 4am. After getting to where the snow was deep enough to shoe up we headed into the bush. After about two hours of bush wacking and wondering why it was that we were not in crampons with ice axes. There was a trail that was so over grown that it was impossible to follow. We finally go just below the Serc of Lone Peak and the grade of the terrain became much more bareable and the bushes thinned out. The best part was the absolutely amazing veiw once we broke throught the cloud cover. The clouds would roll in at unbelieveable speeds and be gone just as fast. We never reached the actual serc due to the amount of day light that we didn't have but we gave it our darndest. The top section of the descent was pure joy! Running thought 3 foot deep powder, jumping, falling, and flopping where nobody had set foot at all this year. Far from the hum of the socked in inversion ridden place below that most would refer to as civilization. We were discussing how sorry we felt for everyone that was not there. The lower half of the descent was sliding, bushwacking, and trying to will your legs to go farther. "This is where I find my freedom." A quote from my favorite song. Freedom by The Push Stars
Enjoy the photos.