Today was a very windy day in town and clouds came and went and even the mountain was obscured by clouds (sometimes in incredibly beautiful ways) so we got some pictures. When we drove up to Castle Lake the three of us, a friend skied across the frozen lake and mentioned there were so many footprints int he snow on the lake that he was glad to have skies on because it would have been hard to walk on the footprints since 6 inches to a foot in the snow. There had obviously been many people there since the last snow. Just trying to walk up the steps someone built into the 4 feet or more snow up there to get to the frozen part of the lake I found it very slippery (too slippery for my Sorel Boots with the little hemisphere cleats on the bottom that are best for walking through new fallen snow 2 feet deep) (But obviously not designed for a sloped sheet of ice that too many people have walked over. So, after slipping and falling down once I avoided the snow trails of now solid ice that people had created so I could stay upright and then walked out on the snow on top of the ice of the lake a ways.
However, ever since Castle Lake didn't freeze over for several years around 2010 I never completely trust the ice any more no matter how thick it might be ever since seeing it never freeze some years. But, this is just me. Until around 2010 there is NO YEAR ever that I was there that ever did not freeze at least 2 to 3 feet thick or more by the way. But, since then I trust the ice less and less even if it is thick because this.
I tend to stay where I know from swimming there in the summer that the water is no more than 3 to 4 feet deep so if I ever fell through I could survive it. However, a few years ago I skied onto the frozen lake from the side of the lake and the change in snow conditions made me fall down and my rear end went through the ice then so I had to have a friend help me get my skies off so I wouldn't drown in ice water. So, after I removed my skies I stood up in about 3 foot deep water up to my waist in about 20 degrees Fahrenheit with a 10 to 20 mph gusty wind blowing. I got to learn a little about hypothermia that day but luckily my truck was only a few blocks away and two friends of mine were there in case I started hallucinating too much from hypothermia from extreme heat loss. I didn't have then an extra pair of pants with me so that was interesting too but I did have a thick rubber rain jacket for working out in the rain so I at least could keep my truck seats dry.
But, today was incredibly beautiful. We talked to one mountaineering skier who had skied up on top of the ridges nearby and said he found some powder there which was surprising because there was no powder at least where we were at the frozen over Castle Lake. But, conditions vary a lot by altitude whenever you are in the snow. When it isn't manicured like at a ski lift you really have to be prepared for ANY kinds of conditions if you don't want to die that day skiing especially on various kinds of ski slopes. The steeper the slope the more dangerous it can be if it isn't manicured to a steady consistency.
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