It wasn't clear that we would go this weekend. The forecast called for rain and warm temperatures all weekend. It's not that I'm a lightweight, but despite Dylan's dedication, I simply do not find skiing in the rain fun. The key is to get up early and check the snow report. You've gotta love the Internet--you can sit at home and see exactly what is going on via webcams.
I got up at 6:45 and scoped it out: a foot of fresh and still snowing at The Pass. Of course, it's on. You only the the opportunity for so many powder days in a lifetime. Missing any out of sheer laziness is a shame. We were out of the house by 7:20 and arrived at the hill by 8:45--plenty of time to put on the gear and get in line for rope drop.
That worked out well for me, but not as well for Dylan. Two of his binding bolts had worked loose and fallen out on the drive up. There was no way that was going to work for him, so I gave him a $20 to walk the 30 yards to the ski shop and buy some bolts. I stayed in line and rode up with the first crew.
The crowd (if you can call it that) is stoked.
You have to love a resort where the total crowd waiting at the lift is less than 20.
The gentlemen on the far left ended up being my ski buddies for the day. First run was down High Lead--those two were right there with me the entire way, although at that point I didn't know I would end up spending the day skiing with them. I ended up hopping the second ride with them, and as is my disposition, I started chatting with them on the ride up. Somehow I ended up on the third ride with them, so we introduced ourselves and spent the morning shredding a foot (more in a lot of places) of fresh.
Ski buddies Cole in the foreground and Rick in the back.
They are regulars, so I was surprised that I hadn't skied with them before.
As it turns out, I had--at least with Cole. He was one of the brave souls that joined us on The Expedition (see December 27, 2010). Rick is Cole's uncle so it was great to see another family of skiers.
The base is getting respectable (it's 102")
After the groomers were plundered, we headed off to SDN. The first trip down was interesting--snow sluffing off everywhere (well, mostly downhill). I ended up in a tight spot at the bottom, but eventually got out. My ski buddies waited at the bottom.
New experience of the day, and of my lifetime: skiing a small avalanche. The new snow was heavy and came on the tail of some rain this week, so SDN was an adventure. Here's what happened: Cole took a different route into the trees on SDN and ended up above me. He skied by and cut over to the next line, I took off behind him and as soon as I did, a 20' wide slab started moving. So I'm surfing this slab on a 45-degree slope, I'm moving, the slab is moving, it's getting a little dicey. I decide after a couple of turns that it would probably be a good idea to cut over to the next line and off the moving slab. So I did and shred my way to the bottom. It was like that all morning--not so much the sluffing snow, but the shredding. One killer untracked run after another.
We eventually headed over to the backside to check out Cherokee Ridge. We were hoping that someone had already cut the trail in, but alas, we had to break trail. Good thing Cole is young and training for a triathlon. Not that I can't keep up and didn't do my part (I did), but it's nice to leave the really tough stuff to someone else. We got a couple good runs on Cherokee before I announced I was going to head back to the front to find Dylan.
Rick stayed behind with his wife while Cole and I went to The Meadow. It was outrageous--big turns in deep snow. I cut over to the left to find the catch trail out and lost Cole. I think he ended up in the hole. I saw Dylan riding up as I neared the bottom, so we spent the next 90 minutes plundering what was left.
By 1pm it was warming up and getting heavy. Moreover, we'd already ravaged all the best lines... and all my gear was getting wet. It was time to quit, so we went to the lodge and had lunch.
Dylan enjoys a snowy break.
What a great day. Good snow, good ski buddies, and good times. I've got my fingers crossed for a repeat tomorrow.
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