Unquestionably, undeniably, our first full-on powder day of the year, today's foot of fresh brought the hoots, hollers, and yip-yips from locals that Winter's smile is all about. But don't be fooled, it wore us out. And froze me out. It's a chilly-will up there today, with a -16 report on the 5am.
It snowed all day yesterday, starting while it was still warm, and bringing about 2-3" of heavy stuff, a perfect buffer layer over that unmentionable stuff beneath that we've been grimacingly skiing on for weeks now. Then came the buttery layer; I wouldn't call it the Steamboat Champagne™ - it was heavy enough made turning not an option. Today was brought to us by the letter P for point and go, and stick to the steeper stuff. Unless someone broke trail for you, but since we were first, there was none of that!
We rode first car on the Gondy, got to Four Points 2nd in line behind a die-hard skinner (where all those behind us were chompin' about how great Rudy's was!) and bombed our way (hooting) down the knee deep glory on Sunset to the western gully of Moonlight trees. A ride up Sundown gave the view of what First Tracks had chewed up, and we opted for Keith's Ridge to Sunshine LL's left side to 12:30, but never made it there. The cut through the trees from Sunshine to High Noon was formidable, and I had to opt for the connector lane (found a frozen mouse-icle on the cat track, indicating the sub-zero temps) while Craig burned his guns out on a High Noon traverse to 1:00. I found him at the bottom there - catching the lovely thigh-deep pow at the bottom of 12:30 mind you - and snapped this:
We did another run down 3:00 to 2:00 to Daybreak and were puffing for a top-to-bottom by then. It's time to ski yourselves in shape peeps. We took Elkhead to Norther (omg HERO soft bumps for some more hooting), to Storm Peak for a SP-Face to Mustache Meadow (BEST run of the day without fail) to Rainbow and out.
While the snow fell early enough yesterday to fall prey to the night crew grooming schedule, even those groomers were nice again - with the only-occasional growl underneath.
I told her yesterday, "Winter, please stick around," and it looks like she will; snow is yet again on the forecast. Check the Almanac, uncanny prediction for Winter's commencement on January 16 in the Western Rockies. HOW do they do that??
-See you in the Deep once again-
It snowed all day yesterday, starting while it was still warm, and bringing about 2-3" of heavy stuff, a perfect buffer layer over that unmentionable stuff beneath that we've been grimacingly skiing on for weeks now. Then came the buttery layer; I wouldn't call it the Steamboat Champagne™ - it was heavy enough made turning not an option. Today was brought to us by the letter P for point and go, and stick to the steeper stuff. Unless someone broke trail for you, but since we were first, there was none of that!
We rode first car on the Gondy, got to Four Points 2nd in line behind a die-hard skinner (where all those behind us were chompin' about how great Rudy's was!) and bombed our way (hooting) down the knee deep glory on Sunset to the western gully of Moonlight trees. A ride up Sundown gave the view of what First Tracks had chewed up, and we opted for Keith's Ridge to Sunshine LL's left side to 12:30, but never made it there. The cut through the trees from Sunshine to High Noon was formidable, and I had to opt for the connector lane (found a frozen mouse-icle on the cat track, indicating the sub-zero temps) while Craig burned his guns out on a High Noon traverse to 1:00. I found him at the bottom there - catching the lovely thigh-deep pow at the bottom of 12:30 mind you - and snapped this:
We did another run down 3:00 to 2:00 to Daybreak and were puffing for a top-to-bottom by then. It's time to ski yourselves in shape peeps. We took Elkhead to Norther (omg HERO soft bumps for some more hooting), to Storm Peak for a SP-Face to Mustache Meadow (BEST run of the day without fail) to Rainbow and out.
While the snow fell early enough yesterday to fall prey to the night crew grooming schedule, even those groomers were nice again - with the only-occasional growl underneath.
I told her yesterday, "Winter, please stick around," and it looks like she will; snow is yet again on the forecast. Check the Almanac, uncanny prediction for Winter's commencement on January 16 in the Western Rockies. HOW do they do that??
-See you in the Deep once again-