Well, I just got in last night from 6 awesome days of skiing at Timberline. I can't honestly say that I have ever had a better stretch of skiing. Yeah, it was cold most of the days but the snow was unbelievable.
After driving up on Wednesday night, I woke up early on Thursday morning to about 6 inches of fluffy powder at the house. Driving into Canaan I could clearly see that there was plenty more up there. My first run of the day I made down Dew Drop. Wow. While playing around on the skier's right side of the trail something happened that scared me to death.. A few times I looked down and my knees had disappeared..
After regaining my composure and realizing that they were just hiding below some fluffy pow pow, I was able to make it the rest of the way down (losing my knees a few more times). The rest of the day I spent making 2 runs at a time (it was freaking cold) and having a ball finding untracked powder all of the mountain. Upper Thunderdraft (under the triple) skied really good, as did Off The Wall. At the end of the day I had decided that this was one of the best days I had ever had on the slopes. I ended the day with 14 ounces of NY Strip goodness at Muttley's (sp?) with Jimmy, Scott (SCWVA), and Santa Clause.
After getting some more snow overnight, Friday was another awesome day to be skiing. I think it was around 10-15 below when I showed up to work. Because of the temperature we didn't have many children in the program so I got some free time to make a few runs. In the morning everything was still very soft. The Drop made a Friday afternoon opening and man was it O-So-Sweet. When Timberline's snowsticks blow snow when it is below zero something magical happens. Light "powder". I met up with Jimmy and Scott (who has already skied it several times) and they took me to the soft goodness. It was unexplainable how different but sweet that trail was to ski. The snow was just awesome.
Saturday was cold. -26 when I got to the ski school desk. Not too fun of a day to be out skiing, although the snow was still awesome.
Sunday and Monday were both really fun days (and cold). We picked up a few inches each day/night. I had several student both days, but was lucky enough to ski most of the mountain with them, as they were pretty darn good skiers. Both days rank up near the top of my days spent instructing. Tons of fun!!
Tuesday was a pretty cool day too. After teaching a 1 hour private lesson, I was lucky enough to clinic with one of Timberline's best instructors. After making just 3 or 4 runs he had fixed a few things that have been bothering me with my technique and I felt like I was skiing a whole lot better (you can't beat getting awesome lessons while getting paid!!!) After lunch Jimmy, JohnL, and I made about 4 runs (one of which they got to see me crash). We spent some time flying down off the top then skiing the trees (plenty of cover) down from mid-station. As we were leaving the snow really started to come down and we were all thinking of an excuse to get "stuck" in the Valley....
Sorry for the length, but I just wanted to report on 6 awesome days of skiing. Who knows how long it will be until I can say that I skied powder 6 days in a row.
Here are a few pictures:
Buried in on Thursday
My new friend Annie
OTW after a half day's work
An office with a view
Big pointy whales look like giant.....
Plenty of snow under the triple
Jimmy is a happy man
JohnL is pretty darn happy too
Snow Snow Snow
Dumping as we were leaving