Stuck in copious amounts of snow on a beautiful day in the mountains? Time to strap on some "teeth," err, snow shoes.

Like this:

At first, I engaged in some uphill snow-crushing on a cross-country ski trail, which wasn't strenuous.

Yet when I reached its end, I found myself in deep snow--to my hips--simultaneously feeling a little like Cossack Yermak discovering Siberia and Ivan Susanin leading the enemy astray to their deaths (and his).

Cue Glinka's opera.

Along the way to the view below, I experienced typical mountaineering problems like accidentally stabbing myself with a snow shoe, while hoping not to step on a hibernating bear somewhere underneath all that white stuff.

Before hiking back, I made a detour up (!) the side of the cliff to take some photographs, then retraced my steps back like the kid from the Shining.

Here's to hoping that I pranked someone into thinking that I vanished beneath the earth!