On snowshoes, today Karen and I hiked steeply up to Clara and Marion Lakes to look for my lost gloves. They were buried under 3-4 feet of snow. It was windy, snowing and cold. I chose to change into dry clothes and eat instead of digging in the snow.

Descending, we met Susan, 67, who downhill and backcountry skied 67 times last year. "You're my hero," I told her. She mentioned being badly injured in an avalanche in 2014. We asked her to tell us the story.

"We were backcountry skiing with a guide in Oregon," Susan said. "I had an airbag that I inflated right away. I stayed on top of the snow. Two men were killed. Both of my legs were broken with bones sticking out. My arm was broken with bones sticking out and multiple broken ribs. I was knocked out."

"The guide had a satellite phone. We were not wearing much because we were backcountry skiing. We had to spend the night in the snow. A Chinook helicopter dropped sleeping bags for us. Without the sleeping bags, we would have frozen to death."

"The next morning, rescuers arrived on backcountry skis with sleds. They skied in to us. We were dragged on sleds for 12 miles. The pain was horrible. Then 24 miles of being dragged on the sleds by snowmobiles."

"I'm not afraid of anything now," Susan said. "So much pain. I have survivor guilt about the men who died." She broke off. "Why did you say I'm your hero?"

"When I first saw you, your face was filled with happiness and peace," I replied.

"What a lovely thing to say!" Susan said and gave me a hug.

A large, sturdy German couple were hiking in the deep snow without traction, gloves or poles. I was amazed. "We're traveling around the United States," they said. "The highest lake is Lake Marion."

"You have a better map than I do!" I replied and laughed. "We never know which is the highest lake."

Descending, we discovered the German couple had built a small snowman beside the trail. We could tell because the snow was scooped with bare hands.

Karen and I had fun jazzing up the snowman. "Only use items on the ground," Karen said. "We can't harm living trees." I was happy to find a golden Northern Larch tree that had blown down with its needles still on the branches.

To my delight, I found the gloves in the bottom of my pack. Since I got snow in my pack today, I took everything out to dry.