I was fortunate to ski timberline this past weekend. They had over another 20" this past week and the conditions were even BETTER than the previous weekend. Several issues poped up, however. One, they changed the starting time for the lifts without any announcement from 8 to 9 am. This is bad business practice. Lots of folks waiting at the lifts for an hour or longer. THEN to make matters worse, by the time the paying public was allowed to load, patrol had cut up most of the best powder runs, leaving some (the drop) closed for their own pleasure until they had turned it into crud. They (patrol) were rather condecending about it as well with one retorting to me that it was "their job." Other than that annoyance the experience was, in a johnfmh term, "epic" with the glade skiing the best ever.

Oh believe me... you'll get the back...

namely when you ride through Cherry Bowl and get a chuckle from a duo who had crashed into each other in the deep powder and couldn't find their equipment, much less stand up.

I grabbed a buddy of mine and drove over on Sunday. I had a great time. I have never spent so much time in the skiing in the woods. I was able to ski The Drop for the first time all year. The snow on OTW made it very skiable and fun. I had a blast. I found myself giggling like a kid. I have a few pics I'll post later. I spent most my time on blues and single blacks since my buddy is more comfortable there, but it was definitely all good! I also ran into ridenski on the lift, which in and of itself turned into an event. We had a nice conversation on the way up, but had a little excitement on unloading when my buddy let his ski get caught up on something. Even that turned out fine with no falls, though I ended up having to make a little jump off the lift after my buddy cleared. All in all, the day was awesome! (the Shanwa Twain coming to your hotel room with a note from your wife kind of awesome, for those who listen to Bill Engvall ).