Today’s big adventure was a ride into the mountains to St. Mary’s Glacier, which often has snow all year round. We parked at the bottom of a hill (already at 10,000′ elevation), and hiked 3/4 of a mile
up to a pretty little lake
where we had a picnic lunch
and then hiked further up to the glacier/snowfield, and then (tried to) hiked a little way up.
We watched some people skiing, and some snowboarding, and then we watched some people try to slide down the hill, but nobody we saw was able to stay in control or slow down. Four people basically crashed down the hill into a pile of rocks, and we later heard that one might have broken a leg. It was actually pretty frightening to see.
Aside from that, it was a nice day to be up there, even if our lungs were not quite ready to extract oxygen from the thinner air at that altitude.