The Tahoe Rim Trail Association has online bulletins about trail conditions, kept up-to-date by hiker reports, so a few minutes on the Internet would have informed me that we were in for up to 5ft of snow as the trail ascended above 8, 000ft.

BBC: Lost in paradise

Funnily enough, the local watchers were adamant that the Purdum Mali (which means snow leopard home) trail was inhabited only by cats.

BBC: Snow Leopard Diary

She is the person up in Juneau, Alaska who's planning to ride 350 miles on a mountain bike through the snow on the same trail that's used by the sled dogs.

NPR: Got Snow? Add Bicycle.

The trail, covered by snow, was lost.

BBC: Lost in paradise

Teams have been traveling in deep snow followed by deep overflows in a trail deteriorated by above-freezing temperatures.

NPR: Iditarod Front-Runner Hopes To Claim 5th Win

So when things like that happen during the race, they usually get long periods where people are walking their bikes through the snow until a snowmobile goes through or a different trail-breaker go through and pack down the trails so they can ride.

NPR: Got Snow? Add Bicycle.

There's a clip in the documentary of one of the lads breaking trail, every step up to his knees in snow, and you hear him say: 'Well, this is our job so we've got to get on with it.

CNN: The height of teamwork on Everest

Directed by Henry Selick, it was devised and co-produced by Tim Burton, who leaves a trail of his familiar obsessions: graveyard humor, whirling snow, a velvety darkness.

NEWYORKER: Tim Burton��s the Nightmare Before Christmas

How could I stay abreast of what was going on in my house if, when the snow came, my every footstep in the yard would leave a trail of incrimination and such clear proof of a prowler on the grounds as to get Diana on the phone to the town police?

NEWYORKER: Wakefield