Except it's a photo so there's not so much motion.
Ever get bored in the mountains? Too many animals and plants to look at? Too many mountains? So BORING, right? I hate being bored. That's why we SCIENCE!
No, not really. But SCIENCE! is still cool. Especially when it's all about snow. HA! A joke!
One of the projects we work with is the Living Snow Project run by the Kodner Lab at Western Washington University. The project is investigating the organisms that live in snow and especially the pink snow that appears in spring. Our job is to collect samples of late season snow and turn it in for analysis.
It may not sound super exciting, but the kids dig it. Each of them have helped collect samples. They've even asked me if there would be watermelon snow where we were going. So SCIENCE! wins again (and so did I).
And since all school and no play makes Henry a very dull boy, we threw in some play with the ice axe. He hasn't really had a lot of practice since way back in 2015, but always loves the idea of an axe because... he's 12.
We crossed a snow slope on the way to our high point and peeked into the Park while holding Tinkham back. Henry collected a second snow sample and we feasted on Pringles while the Mountain looked over the hills. On the way back the snow slope pretty much begged us to glissade.
I went first and set a track down about 100 feet. The snow was perfect. The boy followed with decent form. A few pointers and he climbed back up the hill and did it again. And then again. Yeah, sure, his total elevation gain for the trip was greater than mine, but he had such a smile it's hard to begrudge him an extra 200 feet.
Tink loved it, too. She sprinted up and down. She checked to make sure Henry was ok after each arrest. Once again, she assured us all she loves the snow. She even tired herself out enough that when it was time to start hiking again and she went on leash she didn't even fuss. That's a happy dog.
Now we have two more vials of preserved watermelon snow in the fridge ready for shipment back to the lab. We feel like scientists and we helped some real scientists, too. And now Henry is keen to get back into the next phase of the Timber Project we worked on last summer.