Winter walking

Our friends, S, and I going back up the hill.

It's R! Yesterday (Saturday) S, Daddy, T, and I went with Daddy's boss and his family and Daddy's former boss to the Panoramarundweg Rosenboden winter walk at Toggenburg. The view was beautiful with snowy mountains all around and a lake at the bottom. The sky was a beautiful deep dark blue. It almost looked like the sky in the upper atmosphere before space begins. 

We started off the day with a funicular and a gondola. We met up with the rest of the group at the top of the mountain and had some lunch at the restaurant. Then we started walking. T couldn't keep up from the beginning, so he went in the backpack and Daddy carried him. Then Daddy's boss had the idea to get a snowball fight going. The rest of us quickly caught on with Daddy and T staying behind as to not get hit. After a while we reaching a viewing point where we could look out over the mountains and the the lake in the valley below.

 We soon found out why there was a prepared path. When I wandered off of it I instantly sank down into the snow and got my foot stuck. I think it was deeper than I went, but it was packed down and icy underneath. Eventually I managed to pull my foot out - with the boot! - and climbed back to the path. The snow was soft and powdery and when we got to a place with some really high snowdrifts S and I lay down on them. They were very soft and S didn't want to leave. She said if it wasn't so cold she could probably sleep there. Even though the snow on the path was tightly packed, if you jumped you could go down a few inches, more if you jumped harder. There was definitely enough loose snow for snowballs and to be blown around by the breeze.

S and I fell behind a bit. Can you find us?

We got halfway through when S and I fell way behind. T started getting cold and cranky and the others hurried ahead with him to get him to the restaurant. S and I went more slowly so we could enjoy the view. However, that wasn't a good idea because the weather changed very quickly to a strong wind. The wind blew the snow violently into our faces, which made it go from chilly to freezing. It was pretty because the snow blew in waves across the open areas and formed little mini snow tornadoes (one which flew right into me). By the time we got in view of the restaurant you could use the wind as a chair and it would keep you from falling even if you put all your weight on it. The wind was blowing across us, so it didn't really help or hinder us, but it was still irritating and made everything hard to see. We were glad once we made it to the restaurant and everyone got hot chocolate to warm up. We were lucky that we weren't slower because we went down on the last gondola before they closed for the night.