A week ago we had a heavy freezing rain “event” and over the weekend a very mild thaw … both of these together have left the deep snow cover topped off with a weight-bearing thick topcoat of very hard, glazed ice. It’s the very devil to walk on, even with snowshoes that have big spokes on the base as even they don’t always dig on and grip. Beautiful -10C morning for all that.

The glazing on the ice was quite dazzling and made the dynamic range between sunlight reflection on the one hand and dark foliage on the trees somewhat difficulty to deal with … but I think this picture nicely demonstrates the conditions.