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Show 29 that they weren't adequately equipped for such cold weather. If they became too chilled to go on, Janey would meet them at a trail head and deliver them, on her snowmobile, to an entrance station. On Christmas eve iduring that first viinter, Janey had an early dinner with ranger friends at Old Faithful, then returned to her apartment, Because she vias going to spend Christmas day with her supervisor Jerry Mernin, his viife, and a number of other viinter rangers at the South Entrance of Yellowstone, she worked late into the evening fixing salads and desserts to take to the party. Carols from the stereo filled her tiny kitchen as she arranged her handiwork like a tableau on the table top. The final hour of Christmas eve was drawing to a close, and Janey decided that she vianted to be outside. After dressing warmly, she took her skis and climbed the snow steps from her back door to ground level. "The full moon vias so bright that it made tree-shadovis on the snovi," she remembers. "As I skied across the valley I could see stars, even though they were dimmed by the brilliant light from the moon. Far off in the stillness, I heard a coyote serenade the night. It vias just past midnight, the first minute of the most beautiful Christmas I ever spent." Later that viinter Janey skied into the Heart Lake district with Jerry Mernin and another ranger named John to check the ski trails and shovel snow from the back-country cabin roofs. They stayed the night in one of the cabins, vihere Janey baked ham, svieet potatoes and homemade bisquits in the viood stove. "That was a seven-blanket night," Janey says. "We got up at 4 AM to get an early start, because it takes forever to get everything ready when it's so cold. After vie built the fire and |