We had always wanted to climb a snow mountain, and this one is considered one of the safer options. The most important thing before starting is to check the trail conditions at the visitor center. We also exchanged tokens for hot showers there and stored our valuables - storage was supposed to cost $3, but the staff was kind and didn’t charge us.

When we started hiking, the trail names were so confusing that we completely missed the one we intended to take, and accidentally ended up on what was supposed to be our return route. This mistake turned out to be a blessing, because that path was extremely steep - while it made our legs cramp going up, it would have been dangerous going down.

When we reached the top, the views were absolutely worth it. The golden sunset light on the peaks was a color I’d only seen in MacBook wallpapers - I thought it was edited, but it was real. The two lakes nearby were frozen solid and absolutely beautiful. To protect the water from bacterial contamination, we didn’t step on them - some lakes here you’re not even allowed to touch.

To save money, we risked booking only one bed, betting that wardens wouldn’t patrol during the off-season winter - luckily, we won that bet.

The next day going down, there was still some snow and ice on the trail, and we spent most of the time walking on exposed ridges. When it’s windy here, it becomes very dangerous - some places require sideways climbing like rock climbing. Only when the path finally flattened out and we reached the end did we finally notice the correct entrance we’d completely missed at the start.