So I'm sitting here at work Sunday, in the wee hours of the morning on the start of my birthday, thinking back on all those b-days where all I wanted was a pow day present. I had always come close, maybe a storm just missing the area or some clouds and wind, but never quite amounting to faceshots on that one special day.
The forecast and radar last night showed everything tracking south, with my old home of Taos looking like it would get my birthday goods. The irony of the storm hitting Taos, after moving from that area this year for the deep snow of Zion, wasn't wasted on me. Hell, we've had so many truely great days this season in the Wasatch I wouldn't even think of wishing I was back in the land of mud houses and stray dogs.
So I'm walking out of work at 8am after a trying couple nights, and it's been snowing for a few hours with maybe a inch or two acculmilation. I'm thinking it's all good; it's snowing, I get to tear around with my lady, it is Solitude so there will be pow blown in somewhere, and it's my birthday so I'll be getting some in one way or another.
Our first lap off Summit this morning shed any doubt that today would be just dust on crust. It was nuking up top and the drifts in the trees were worthy of lapping. It was real good, and it soon became one of those pow days where our tracks would blow in lap after lap.
Honeycomb proved to be as quality as usual, but it was immediatly apparent to us that the real show was going on off Summit. The winds were howling and the heavy snow confined to the upper elevations, creating that heavenly experience that comes from observing windloading and then getting after it. Bomber riding conditions allowed us to mach through the trees and dump speed into the drifts, and the big airplane turns were sublime.
Having to be back here at work again tonight forced us off the mountain by 3, but not before giving thanks for one of the best birthday presents I have ever recieved, and Ms. Tresckow's present didn't suck either.
Thanks Ullr, and thanks Str8line for the boards. Those old 198 xxx's lay waste to everything, and thanks for breaking them in for me!
Hope you all get some on your respective birthdays, and for that matter, this season.
Oh, and if it's just drizzling in town and not appearing too promising, take the chance and get up to the mountains. It could turn out to be one one the best days of your life.
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