Cow Parsnip Winter Blanket

What could those four nouns mean? Cow, Parsnip, Winter, Blanket...

I lucked out on finding a car seat to Tahoe with some friends a few weeks ago. I think I am finally on the very last "hurrah" or whatever of the cold that I caught while there, but it was still worth it. It was my first trip to an alpine winter since I turned 30... and that was long enough ago that it seems like a different lifetime. So my plan was to bring my x-c skis, cover some distance, and take in some scenery. I actually kind of forgot about the thin air that awaited me.

My friends hit the slopes at Kirkwood and I tromped off on the '80's-era ski package that I own. Since this is what I learned on, I guess it feels natural to still be skiing on this equipment.

Day 1 was wet and slushy. Not good. But still great to be on skis.

Day 2 dumped an untold amount of powder. It's shown in the weighty branches here. I had the trail to myself, except the snow-cat who was grooming it. I yielded to him several times.

I took in the thin mountain air on a 6-mile loop or so. I stopped on the return trail to snap a shot of this cow parsnip. Those are the two pale brown  flower stalks poking out of the snow. To take this photo, I had to side-step up a four-foot wall of packed powder, then use my skis more like snowshoes to float on about four feet of powder. Carrying a piece of photography equipment that you care about in such a situation is nerve-wracking, since when you fall, you are down for a while.

This is the dead flower stalk of a cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum), a plant favoring wet areas that seems to have a wide range in California. The plant was about twelve hours from becoming completely blanketed for the next several months. That fact, and the lighting in the mini-valley where it was situated, made it irresistible to photograph, as sketchy as it was to get there.

Cow Parsnip, Snow Dumping, Kirkwood, 2012.