white blazes

I was in the Sequoias about a week ago and had a snowball fight in the mountains. Oh how I love snowball fights… they remind me of the inherent enjoyability of the world. Sure water freezes for all sorts of functional reasons but it also freezes for fun. We were in Montana a few years ago, and by we I mean a group of students and friends. One of the days we set up a base camp and a group of us took to the hills—more specifically up toward a nearby summit. In this process we stumbled onto a huge snowfield that led to the edge of a cliff. With the seriousness of the elevation and the gigantic cliff in the back of our minds we each scooped a handful of the white stuff pretending we just wanted to hold on to the freezing ice balls. The snow began to fly and with the air as still as it was you could here the water grenades fly by as someone just missed the back of your head as you were bent over shoveling ammo into your hands. The cliff, the remaining climb and the latter descent were of no concern at this point rather the sun and the air and the beauty was paramount taking us up into the landscape as actors in the great playfulness of the world.