Schweitzer Gold Medal Day

That was the best day of skiing I've had, followed by a better and therefore bestest day today. I heard giddy locals saying this was one of their best days ever - and when that comes from grizzled Santa snow beard types who look like they've had decades of snow under their belt, I give it some credence. Sometimes life throws you so many bonuses it's hard to believe.

We woke up early, had a great breakfast, and made it to the rental/demo shop by 8am. First ones there. The ladies recognized the two other guys from yesterday, and said since we were return customers we'd get 10% off and Canadian at par. Forget that we'd pay 5x as much for powder skis when it snows a foot...

I got some really sweet Line Prophet 98's in 179cm. Had been eyeing up a bunch of others, but these are similar to what I've preferred before, and skips the goofy reverse camber stuff.

Made it to the lift line before the maze was set (8:20) and settled into the euphoric atmosphere with everyone who was up early. Maze gets set and everyone rushes the line, then settles into their spot. People's phones are going, and as it turns out, a tree fell on a power line, knocked one down, then a bus drove over it, and somehow in all this got stuck - so road is closed. The people up are the people up!

We're 10th chair and watch people getting face shots and waist deep turns under us. Lift shack is pumping out the tunes (there's no "classic rock" here one guy said, we just call that music), we hang a left and burn it all the way. Balls deep on Pend Oreille, so smooth, and the skis are just beauty. It's not cold but not warm, like -3C or so. Perfect.

Get to the bottom, and since there's actually not that many people up here, no lift line at all! We just ski to front, click tickets, then on. By 10:30 we had 11 deep, fresh, completely incomparable runs in - Stiles, White Lightning and Headwall caught buckets of snow. Pure magic.

Did a couple off the back on Lakeside Chutes, hit some good air, smooth landings. Those skis are so enabling its unreal. Lunch at 11:30 when some grumpy people started coming up once the road was open - and zero lunch lines.

Got back out for more laps - explored the back, settled in on the front, and at 2pm were still getting soft turns and face shots.

The 4 group dwindled to 3, then to two. Once down to 2, we ramped it back up to nonstop runs. Spin class and threshold work take away ski fatigue like magic.

All in it was 23 powder runs, no lift line over a minute, and as best we figure pretty darn close to 45,000ft.

Ski in/ski out access. Couch, hot tub and micro brews. Heated floors to dry stuff. Roller cylinder. Those are amenities that count.

I'd take a foot of snow over double rainbows any day, life just gets these exclamation points of awesome every now and then, and they're worth every minute. Deep snow, cheap awesome skis, no lines, perfect weather, great group!