So, what would be a winter hike in the mountains be without being nearly crushed to death by a big chunk of ice?

Winter is a great time to see lots of cascading walls of ice at the higher elevations (along the Parkway and such). And with all the snow we have been getting there was lots and lots of cascading ice on the Sunday hike I took with PT.

This is a small sampling.

All I wanted to do was get some close up pictures of the ice that was frozen to the rock cliff along side the Parkway. But thanks to the helping hands of my hiking partner, this nice chunk of ice landed on me and pinned my left leg. After a little digging (’cause it was way, way too heavy to lift), we were able to get my leg out. Nothing broken. Nothing bruised.

The hole underneath the ice is where my leg ended up.

And here’s a close up!

I lucked out somehow … either it was where I was standing or how the ice fell. Either way, I wasn’t crushed or seriously broken.

Here are the happy hikers before ice walls started tumbling down …

… and the snowy road back to the car.