Powder Day

sunset
Originally uploaded by kenmores

Today was another perfect day but for a whole different set of reasons. March came in like a lion I suppose… albeit a lion treading softly on another 10cm of dry powder snow!! I wasn’t expecting this so I didn’t spring out of bed at dawn but when I did get up I sprinted around getting skis and gear together like a madman and then racing off up to the trails. I haven’t had decent powder since I skied up Whiteface back in November. Got stuck behind a snowplow(with a few thousand other skiers) but finally made it up to a crowded P7. The last few days have been bitterly cold skiing and the snow was groomed into a bullet hard concrete consistency. Very fast for skating but today things were very different. Despite the crowds I was surprised to find I had the honour of breaking trail on Skyline. This is great news to a powderholic like myself and enjoyed some sweet turns on the loop out. Alas from there on I found most of the trails skied in (I guess there are a few more out there like me :-). That’s okay – even with one or two sets of tracks it’s still great fun to ski in soft dry powder snow. In fact I found quite a few people out on the backcountry trails which was nice to see. Lots of families with little kids learning the joys of powder snow. Nice!

I looped out along some of my favourite trails like (name removed to maintain its secrecy) and (name removed to maintain its secrecy) all of which had some great soft powder to ski. No land speed records were set but that wasn’t the point and I spent some 4 hours pickin’ trails and jumping off into the fluff. My only mistake was that - in my haste to head out in the morning - I forgot to check if my camera had a memory card in it. It did not so my camera played a backup role as ballast on my descents (the photo is from my evening walk after I got home). My second mistake was not to bring any food with me so four hours proved a little long to be out there. I finally had to come in out of the snow to get something to eat…. Maybe I should have headed back after lunch? Ah well, once I was off the trails I would have had to come home for some dry clothes and then drive back, find a spot to park, etc. etc.. I’ll head back tomorrow – Its Norway Day - so I’ll have some vaffels to look forward to as I head out into the snow.