IN THE DEEP

We both skied yesterday, but we pressed glass this morning at the Gondola. It was "like" a powderday, there were 5-8" (scoped yesterday), and with no one around, it would be intact. In fact, there were 6 people in line behind us at the Gondola, that's how deserted it is around here.

We headed right for Four Points, down a buttery, gorgeous Rudy's, and eyeballed Tornado the whole way up. What was groomed was grabby underneath with 3-6" of heavier but still fluffy April snow on top. What wasn't groomed was deeper, up to 8" on top and of the bumps or in the trees, but unpredictable and lightly populated with "snow snakes."

From Tornado we hit Four Points again, and headed down Sunset to Moonlight trees - I found two snow snakes, but the trees were otherwise surprisingly soft and generous. Up Sundown through a thick thick fog, and over to Sundial to Ramrod, our boards gliding through the creamy top layer with no other tracks in sight - yesterdays tracks mostly covered.

Up Southpeak and down Westside, the right side of which (dubbed Craig's Ridge) was just the same, graceful and predictable. The view from Westside (left) was of the sky breaking apart finally to reveal what would become a bluebird afternoon... perfect the STARS employee ski day (2-4pm) and party.

Up Sundown again and down to One OClock and into 12:30, then over to Daybreak and ducking left into the trees (dubbed Andy's trees); a little less snow down in this section, but 12:30 takes the cake as usual.


From Sundown we took the Face's mustache - sketchy in the fog but if you could find the line it was lovely - to Rainbow and BC. I took Valley View down while the boys did another to-to-bottom.  VV wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible - the snow losing its fluff the lower I got, until finally it was like spring skiing again.

The end is in sight, and yet the powderdays loom - the forecast is snow right on through Tuesday so you know there will be some hikers getting their turns in after the lifts stop churning. It's bittersweet, but we're all ready to break out the bikes and bag some raise...

Hopefully there will be one more In The Deep before then though -

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If the mountain was a butter factory, today's snow would be the homemade creamy kind that spreads easy even on cold toast. You'd think the warmer temps would have made for heavier stuff, and the lower layer may have been so, but it was coming down so hard and fast that we didn't notice, today was voted creamiest day of the year by our bunch.

Winter Storm Warning came in around 10pm last night, although it started snowing around suppertime. By morning, the 5am report said 9 inches up top, but - see Craig's last post to understand this word - it was NUKING all morning, so by the time we'd gotten to our second run, the previous tracks had been covered, and well over 9 inches.

We loaded the Gondy just early enough to beat the Thunderhead crew to Four Points yet again, and our pack of hounds started with a Cyclone-Vortex run into the clouds. Or was it fog? Or nuclear aftershock? Either way, the visibility was zilch, and we were all talking about the vertigo effects on the ride back up Storm. I had to hug the left hand trees of Cyclone to keep my bearings, and yet still found myself on DropOut instead of Vortex since I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, and rolled over the lip before the fall line because I couldn't tell the ground from the sky. But who's complaining? It's deeper now that it was then.

Next we did Storm Face-Sunset-Lights Out, still blinded and asking "Where am I?" about every 5th turn, and still cackling at the shin deep butter. The turns were silent, but to quote Dylan, "the wind was a-howlin' and the snow was outrageous!" 

Next run Craig and I ducked into 12:30 while the rest of the crew did 1:30, and everyone bragged about knee deep first tracks when we met back up at Sundown. "Amazing," "unbelievable," and "gorgeous" type adjectives were thrown around like confetti. 

Following that up with a Sundial trees to Ramrod, fast and furious. Then captured this on Westside to prove that despite the 9am report saying only 1 additional inch, we were choking down face shots like we were boxing The Hurricane.
1 inch my ass. And sometimes a run is so nice you do it twice. Sure enough, Sundial/Ramrod/Westside was a two-fer for us today.

By then it was 10:30am and I had to part ways with the crew to get some work done. They went for a 1:30 lap, then a Morningside lap, and a top-to-bottom from there.  I went straight for Storm Face nose trees again, and caught the deepest butter of the day on lower Concentration. Good gawd, untracked and knee deep all along the left side... glorious.

I sure hope if you're reading this and can make a few pm turns you do, because it's still coming down like a frozen monsoon out there.  Get some.

See you in the deep!