Belchen in white

This is my third time to write about seeing snow for the first time: the first one about the left over snow in Schauinsland during our second module, the second on the light snow fall down town, and this time with proper snow.

Four, three, two... That's the number of layers of my upper garments, socks, and pants respectively. As part of our Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning module, we headed to Belchen, the third highest peak of the White, err... Black Forest. As soon as we got off the van, snowballs came flying in all directions in no time and a snowman grew up faster than you can say "frosty."

I was only expecting to do some leisurely walking for this excursion, like what we have done so in the past, although we got more than what we bargained for. We ended up doing some serious hiking. With serious I mean steep slopes, going over a small stream and fallen trees, throw in the occasional slips and slides (or make that frequent) from the slippery terrain. It's one thing to hike on dry land, and it's another thing altogether to do so in 10 centimeters of snow. I'm not really complaining as I like hiking in general, but not without psychological preparation. I even thought it was an overkill that our guides brought some skiing sticks, but I ended up being grateful for having used one for the most part of the hike.

The white landscape painted from the pallet of nature; a masterpiece in itself that took almost a year of waiting and only a few days to finish.

On the right is our guide fittingly named Mr. Baum (meaning tree).