The sky was clear when I woke up.
Red streaks burning through the wispy clouds.
No reason to ski today.
Leisurely breakfast, sit down to draw skiing instead of doing it.
I stand to look out the window and its dumping.
Straightline, one turn, the crunch of the old crust under this new snow.
Another turn, this one gentler, quieter, bounce out onto the cat track.
The lift line is empty.
It’s Thursday, it wasnt supposed to snow till tonight.
Tomorrow the weekend crowds will arrive, drawn by inflated snow reports.
But for now, the snows falling.
12 inch overnight totals dont just come out of nowhere.
Cinch down the hood, snug the goggles up to the brim of my helmet.
Slide in headphones, double check the junction of my gloves and my cuffs.
Im all for friends on a powder day.
I love the shared experience of deep snow and fast laps.
But storm skiing is best done solo.
Beacon on, hood up, collar turned, answering to no one.
Ski onto the chair, only stop to synch up the music to the run.
The first run is mediocre, thick dust, but dust on crust nonetheless.
But the second run is deeper, and the third even better.
Sometimes we treat snow reports like static timeline markers.
I skied 9 today, all day.
Theres no frenzy to get to your favorite stash before its tracked out.
Instead the day ramps up, saving the best for last.
The sun is low on the horizon, my facial hair is frozen into a clammy mask.
Thats the point of fat skis after all.
15 minutes until patrol starts shutting down the steeper terrain, 30 until this lift closes.
If I move fast I can get three more runs.
Patrol is fiddling with the boo as I get off.
The red jacketed patroller yells at me to Get it!
as he lifts the rope for one last lap.
We laugh hard, giddy with how good the skiing just was.
The crowds will line up, waiting for the rope to drop.
Theyll compete for first tracks through the runs I just plundered.
Theyll wait in lift lines, watching the skiing get slowly worse with every lap they take.
Thats one of the founding tenets of powder skiing after all, get it before someone else can.
But storm skiing flips that on its head.
Theres no rush, no competition, things are only going to get better.
So settle in, get comfortable, find your groove.
