Steamboat 1/10/08

Today was a powder clause day. I work a full time job but when it’s a powder day and I get approved beforehand…I’m allowed to ride in the morning then come into work. Living in a resort town having a powder clause is a necessity. Luckily yesterday when I watched it dump snow all day, by 4pm I knew today was a powder day.

I was at the mountain by 8am grabbing my gear and making my way down with friends. Got into the gondola before the crowd was let loose. At the top of the Gondola, cut over to Norther and got some good turns down the side in pillows of fresh powder. Easily 1.5 feet deep. I took my camera out as I was cutting on the groomers and pointed it behind me as i rode. Got this shot of other peoples lines coming down.

Our first instinct was to hit up 4 points first since it was the first chair open on that side of the mountain. But with 50 people in line, I decided to tell my friends to hit up Pony instead. Rode down to Pony and we ended up being in line for the first chair. There was only one skier waiting there before us and luckily with him and us…we had 4 to the first chair.

While waiting in line, I see this awesome shredder coming down and cutting to the front in his jacket…and guess who it was! My buddy Steve! He got first turns down Pony while we were all waiting in line for it to open. What a lucky SOB! I was stoked for him and jealous at the same time.

When we got on the first chair going up…I took this photo of his line coming down. Damn I hated him for that epic line. No chairs ahead and his one line coming down the slope…all nice and S turnish!

As we get to the top of Pony, I tell my friends we’re going left and we gotta get going before everyone else behind us passes us. Unfortunately that meant breaking trail and at the top of Pony it’s a big flat at first. James was nice enough to skate and break trail while I strapped in and uses his trail to get speed.

The first run was probably the most epic of my life. I was the first person riding under the chairlift of people, riding the epic powder on the side of the chairlift. Getting hoots and hollers from the chairlift. That was the first time being “that” person riding down with everyone watching getting fresh powder turns. I didn’t even ride close to Steve’s line on the first run. The first run was just S turns down the mountain, powder kicking up and face shots the entire way down. It was the lightest powder so far this year and that first run…was seriously heaven. When I got closer to the bottom, Steve had caught up behind me and was dropping small cliffs and just throwing down. At the bottom waited around for my friends before hitting up the chair again.

It was the perfect powder day. This morning when I dropped off a friend for work at Thunderhead…the blue skies were coming out and by the time I was making turns this morning it was just beautiful out on the mountain.

Eventually the face of Pony got tracked out after a couple chairlift rides. Here’s the picture of Pony around 9:30am.

Once it got tracked out, we headed into the trees and I showed off some of my favorite tree spots to my friends. Got a lot of shots of them riding through the trees.

In the trees…it was still fresh powder turns, any way you want and just having to have fun avoiding trees.

Making our way back down the mountain, hit up more tree runs. Got this shot of us waiting to drop in.

On the last run, I came down close to a tree and ended up having my board hit something and found myself totally stuck in a tree well. Luckily my friend James was close by and could come and take off my board for me. It was me upside down with my legs totally unable to get out of the snow since I had a tree right next to me.

Even still…awesome day on the mountain. Going to work with a smile and totally stoked to have gotten to ride this morning in such a great powder day.