A few weeks ago Ken had a great idea—let’s try hiking the Death Hike route in winter! It’s been extremely cold, and after a wet autumn and early winter, we could expect a pretty spectacular ice show at the falls. I loved the idea, and so did Gina. We couldn’t call it the Death Hike, of course—it’s more like an inverse Death Hike. The name “Life Hike” was born.

Ken invited some of the usual Death Hikers, but the day before the hike he wrote to say, “Apparently Death has much more allure than Life.” Only he, Gina, and I were interested, possibly due to the brutally cold (sub-zero!) conditions we’ve been experiencing this week. He made it clear that “If we at least get out of the car within a dozen miles of the gorge, we will have earned our pizza.”

The day began with sunny conditions and a temperature of 8°F. Climbing the gorge was an entirely different experience in the ice and snow. In some spots the snow cover was up to 9 inches thick, but the trails were covered with about three inches. Someone had hiked the trail before us, which helped a lot. The trail was impassable along part of its route, but no problem—we simply hiked right up the frozen, snow covered creek! We had to climb around the highest parts of the falls, but much of the hike was spent directly atop the creek, making for better views than we’d ever had from the trails along the side. It was a physical and mental workout. To counter the cold, Ken had come dressed in a snowmobiling suit that he promptly shed (and had to carry back to the car) a quarter of the way up the first climb—we were all sweating like mad! Gina and I were particularly enthralled by the thin spots where we could see water flowing beneath the ice. There were so many different types of ice formations, “caves” that had formed under the cliffs behind some of the largest ice columns, and water running behind and beneath the ice in some spots. Some of the formations were truly incredible—so incredible that Ken almost renounced his atheism! (He was just kidding.)

We didn’t hike the Broad Mountain loop road all the way out to the overlook as we usually do on the Death Hike; instead we came directly back down the return trail to the parking area. The sun felt warm and inspiring (and that’s a tall order in January). We did go for pizza after the hike. The Monks kids ended up joining us there, so we got a few pizzas and some soft drinks and heard about their day at school, and told them the story of the hike and what they had missed.