Happy Christmas. I wish the season fills you all with hope and joy.

Often you meet the nicest and most interesting people out on the trail.

Last week I passed three women snowshoeing on the Upper Hut Trail on Kelly Mountain. I skied up to the warming hut and started up a fire in the wood stove just before they arrived. Two of them spoke with a bit of an accent, and I asked them where they were from.

“We’re from Iraq,” a woman named Skala Mustafa said. “But we’re from the Kurdish part of Iraq.”

Skala said in her homeland they have lots of mountains, “but not this much snow.”

Skala was quick to point out that her people fought against Saddam Hussein and ISIS.

Skala said she recently arrived in Idaho Falls to visit her brother who is here working on his Ph.D. in computer science. She described having to jump through many hoops to obtain a visa “because I come from Iraq.”

The other Kurdish woman was Hero Salih, Skala’s sister-in-law, who lives in Idaho Falls and runs Hero’s Kitchen out of her home. She said she often sells her goods at the Idaho Falls Farmers Market. The third woman, Emily Thomas, was just your typical American girl playing guide to two foreign friends on an outdoor adventure.

“We’ve never been up here in the winter before,” Emily said. “After this, we are going to the hot springs.”

I told them that the large, deep prints in the snow along the trail were moose tracks, and we had an animated discussion about the giant animal.

When the trio arrived at the hut, they pulled out two traditional Middle Eastern treats — a date-filled pinwheel-type cookie and a small cheese-filled roll. I traded one of my Kind Bars for a date-filled cookie, and I think I got the better bargain.

The Kurd’s next adventure was to visit Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah over the holidays.

When I got home, I looked up Hero’s Facebook page (Hero’s Kitchen) and found some of her other tasty-looking Middle Eastern dishes she has to offer. She said you order from her one day and pick the food up the next day.

The warming hut is available for overnight reservations. For information, go to the Idaho Falls Ski Club’s website.

Last week’s bitter cold days got me thinking of strategies for dealing with the cold when playing outdoors.

It was interesting that the temperatures were actually colder in Idaho Falls than in the mountains around the Kelly Canyon Ski Resort. The temperature inversion had settled the coldest air in the lowlands.

When I know I’m doing something active outside on bitter cold days, I focus on three things: my feet, my hands and my head.

For my head, I like to wear a thick beanie, and if the wind is blowing, I put on a buff that can be pulled up over my face if need be. That is usually sufficient for most situations. If it gets super cold, I put on a balaclava (kind of like a ski mask). Ski goggles also seem to warm up your face.

For my feet, I like to wear long wool socks (even knee high). Keeping your legs reasonably warm helps keep your feet warmer too. If your blood passes through chilly legs, it won’t warm your feet as much. On particularly cold days, feet can be warmed with plastic grocery bags wrapped around your feet and inside your boots. Another strategy is to use tiny chemical toe warmers that stick to the end of your boot or sock. Also, make sure that your boots are waterproof or there is no hope for keeping your feet warm.

For my hands, I like to have two sets of gloves — one heavy-duty and another for normal use. Often when you first start out on a cold winter day, heavy gloves are needed. Then you can switch to the lighter gloves after your body warms up from activity. The extra pair of gloves comes in handy in case one set gets wet.

For the rest of the body, I wear layers and take them on and off depending on the conditions. This means you’ll need a daypack to accommodate everything.

One final trick to consider is a thermos bottle filled with a hot drink. On particularly cold days, downing a cup of hot drink works like magic to warm the entire body.

Jerry Painter is a longtime East Idaho journalist and outdoorsman.