Author's Note: Did anyone like the snow routes? Anyone at all?
Slow Snow
There were actually a lot of good things that could have been said about Route 217. For instance, Orangen really did think snow was pretty. There were also several perfectly usable Pokémon she could catch, and she likely would have used at least one of them if she didn't have a full team already. Furthermore, if she'd wanted to have a Glaceon in her party, she could have finally had the chance to evolve her Eevee on this route.
However…
The snow piled up quite heavily in most places. Furthermore, apparently the actual ground underneath was pretty uneven; it had to be in order for some of the snow drifts to be as deep as they were.
The places where the snow came up to about Orangen's waist were at least tolerable. It slowed her down a bit, but it could be worse.
Then it got worse. Right when Orangen thought she was about to step into some shallower snow, she instead found herself in a snow drift that came up to her chin. She had to flail her arms out wildly to push all the snow away, and she was forced to walk at a speed that "a snail's pace" would be a far too generous way to describe.
Orangen managed to get out of that deeper section of snow, but then promptly walked into another chin-high drift a few seconds later. She sighed as she proceeded to shove her way through the snow again, and a few nearby skiers started laughing at her.
"You know, it's a good thing I'm not a tiny little short person, or I'm sure this would be taking me a really long time!"
"You are a tiny little short person," one of the skiers called out unhelpfully, easily sliding away on his skies as Orangen shot him a glare.