With coffee in hand, a bagel already half consumed, and all my winter hiking gear unpacked and thrown in the back of the 'onda I was heading up the hill toward Snoqualmie Pass. It's been over a month since my last trip to the Pass area and the change is amazing. Gone are the mile high piles of snow replaced with dirty gray banks only a few feet high.

The plan was to meet Dane at Alpental, climb up high enough to get some good snow, and practice self-arresting with an ice axe. I've had the ice axe since just after Christmas, but never had an opportunity or knowledge to use it effectively. Everybody said it was more a liability than anything else if I just carried it to scare away the bears (and not very effective at that) so when the opportunity came up I jumped on it.

But, wait! Who's this "Dane" character? He's a fellow hiker I met through NWhikers.net. He's still in school so I feared the worst as we took off up the hill, but managed to hold my own even for an old guy.

In the valley where the sun hadn't yet hit the snow the footing was pretty treacherous. When we crossed the line between shadow and sun the snow at least felt softer even if it wasn't yet. By the time we crested the first hill, some 500 vertical feet above the cars, it definitely was softer.

We found a slope that was steep enough and had a decent run-out in case we totally lost control. It wouldn't do to plummet down the hill while "practicing." I quickly realized you can't learn to do everything from the Internet and got some good pointers from Dane who had at least read an honest-to-goodness book on the subject. (You know, those bound paper things.)

We did a bundle of runs in the four positions: feet first on your chest, head first on your chest, feet first on your back, and head first on your back. I decided that head first on my back was by far my least favorite. I had a tendency to flip over rather than roll and pivot on the pick of the axe. Regardless, I managed to stop each time.

We found a steeper area and tried some more. The weather was far from the rain promised by the weatherfolk. Instead of pouring rain making us miserable there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was actually getting warm.

Unfortunately, my head-home time came too soon so I started down while Dane decided he'd continue up the hill. I joked that I'd get down the hill in just five minutes and in fact did. Previous glissades paled in comparison to the speed, control, and, dare I say grace of this slide. Almost at the bottom of the hill (500 vertical feet below my start) I saw a couple of hard-core guys heading up armed with axes, of course, and helmets and ropes and everything else that I have yet to learn about.

The only casualty of the experience was a hole in my rain pants where the pick found my leg. No blood so no foul (yes, Clara uses that expression now) and all I'll need is a nylon repair kit. Then I'll be ready for Everest.

Since this was sort of a hike I'll throw some stats. How about a mile and 600 feet of gain?