Christmas Morning Mountain Hike

On Christmas morning, which was at the end of our trip to Albuquerque, I felt well enough to go on our annual Christmas morning snow hike in the Sandia Mountains. I was still coughing a bit, and we kept the hike short, but it was good to be out. We went first thing in the morning while everyone was still opening presents.

We caught this guy by surprise.

He was like, “Whaaat? Why are there humans out? It’s Christmas morning!”

Last year there was tons of fresh snow and were glad for our snowshoes.

This year there wasn’t as much snow, and what snow was there was iced over.

Luckily, I brought my Yaktrax, which are metal coils wrapped around rubber which pull over the bottom of your boots. They are amazing on ice. If you have to regularly, or even occasionally, walk on crusted snow, wet snow, ice or water on ice, you need a pair of these.

I don’t want to sound like an advertisement here, but they are currently for sale on Amazon for $15. https://www.amazon.com/Yaktrax-Traction-Cleats-Walking-Medium/dp/B0094GO9DA

And they are so amazing. They totally take the worry out of hiking on ice. In general I am much more likely to slip and fall than John is, but I never even slid once. John, who wasn’t wearing them, slid a few times during the hike and nearly fell once. They are a total game changer.

It was a beautiful Christmas morning hike.

We enjoyed our annual pilgrimage to see the snow.

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