For all you poor saps who deal with snow in the winter: A bunch of handy tips for keeping yourself dry — and alive — while exerting yourself in cold weather, from the folks at Seattle Mountaineers.

I moved to the Bay Area to get away from Illinois winters, so I have a hard time warming up to the whole idea of intentionally traveling in the direction of anyplace that has snow. Plus there’s that whole “now I gotta buy more crap for cold weather” that’s discouraging me.

Thing about nature is, it wears down your resolve to stay indoors. As do the fliers from REI. Which is another way of saying, if any of my Bay Area readers want to take a rookie along the next time they go snowshoeing, drop me a note. I might not need that much convincing. Heck, it’s gotta be cheaper than skiing.