IN THE DEEP

It's always these "slim" years that we get hammered in April.... the numbers don't lie. We average 350" of snowfall annually, so when I see only 225 by March 2oth, I assume it'll come sometime. Maybe after it's any use to us, but it will come. And it did. And I reveled in it. Thankfully.

Being out for 2 weeks during some of the best powder days of the year was one of the hardest acts of patience I've ever had to perform. I twisted my leg pretty bad on March 22nd, and gave myself two solid weeks to heal and retrain. My patience paid off.

Yesterday it just kept coming down, in those big potato-sized snowflakes, blowing upward, with the wind howling, for at least 24 hours straight. I knew watching that all day that I could do nothing other than assume my leg could take it. I don't breathe skiing like my husband does. I don't think about it all summer, and live by the 5am report in the winter (I know, blasphemy). But I do love my powder, and I'm a snob about it. So when they reported 24" in 24, just like the Pirate Theater play I love, there was no saying "No" to that.

And it was well worth it. Now let's move on to the snow.

On deep days, we ride the Gondola to beat the hounds to Four Points, which opened about 10 minutes late today, making the hounds restless indeed. "It's 8:48" you hear them shout, "Calm down, they're doing their best," another one says... and then the beeps start and the antsy pants dance begins. Those beeps mean "Load 'Em Up!" And those hounds start drooling.

From Four Points we bombed down Sunset to find the creamy goods that were up to our knees in spots- the 24" in 24 is definitely in the trees today (and tomorrow, there's NO one here!), but the groomers had this 6-8" coating on them that was truly like butter. There were trench-sized windlips on the top of High Noon and Sunshine Lift Line, visibility was zero so they took us by surprise for sure. But once you got down to the Clocks the fog lifted, and the tree runs were magnificent. 1230 was the best I've seen it all year. 130 was just as good. Then we went over to Sideburn, and the meadow below Storm Face where Craig found a windlip with his name on it:



And from there we rode Storm up again for another lap of the same, this time down the hero-sized bumps of Storm North/Liftline, and down to Hurricane, where both quotes of the day occured:
"So much happiness!" And, "If there WERE bumps under there, they're burried now!" So true Jennie Lay, so true! Thanks for the smiles today.

It was impossible to not to have a good time this morning, well, unless you had to leave early like I did, but my pain was secondary to the powderiferous glory of the day, and in that, I feel blessed to say, we were truly In The Deep of it today, folks. Glorious.



4 more days, and some end of the season fun to come... then it's back to the waiting game, yet again.

In The Deep – 4.1.10 & 4.2.10

So I guess you could look at our April first snow storm and powder days in two ways. April fools on all the summer lovers who can’t wait to put their short and sun dresses on is one way to see it. But I like to think it was all of us powder hounds who fooled Mother Nature into thinking we had had enough snow and were ready for Spring. Well the joke is on her because the mountain reported 14 inches in 48 hours but it was way more than that. I skied over a foot of fresh in places yesterday and today was almost as good. The fact that we have great conditions (some of the best all season) and there are no people in town makes for the perfect local’s playground.

So yesterday was perfect snow with terrible visibility but that kept people off the mountain and my lines fresh. So I hooked up with Joey and Jason and McCarthy and headed for the snow. First run took us into Sideburns and over to Lights Out and were not disappointed. Deep and light with a few inches of heavy underneath and we couldn’t even hear the ice lurking below. After that we headed for Pioneer Ridge and Middle Rib. The deeper into the trees we got the deeper the powder got and the better the face shots. After hitting a few of the regular stashes, I finished the day by breaking off from the group to take the Daze down and called it a day to save some fuel for the next day.

APRIL 2:
So knowing there were very few people on the mountain the day before, I arose very early to get first chair on Christie. This time with Pat and Shelby in tow. The first stash I shoed them was T-Head liftline. Now you can only do this when the Poma lift isn’t running but it is worth it! Next we headed for Storm Peak and my favorite warm up run down Storm Peak Face to Sunset Trees (right side) to Moonlight Trees. Next we hit Rolex for 6 inches on top of groomer heaven! Keith’s Ridge, West Side, Black Powder, RamRod, and 12:30 trees all made the list today and then I cut it short a bit to get home for some work before work. Either way it was a glorious two days and more snow is in the forecast so we will see you…In The Deep