Powder covered trees as seen from
the K1 Gondola midway up Cascade

Powder covered trees as seen from
the K1 Gondola midway up Cascade

Oh my God! At the inn this morning when I woke up, on top of the 9 inches of snow we received yesterday was a new, fresh 5 inches of champagne bubbles. Unheard of at Killington in April...but there they were, just waiting for my powder skis.. Oh boy!

I tried to get out of the house before Mary had any ideas of me doing work around the inn this morning. Almost made it... I think she was watching for me at the front door. So we agreed I would be home by noon....The art of living and working together is compromise... but there was fresh powder waiting... so off I went.

I met up with Bill, Howie and Walt at about 8:45. There are no friends on a powder day... but off we went. We took the K1 Gondola up. The snow cover on the trees was just incredible. You need to remember that all of the snow pack was out of the trees last week. Everything on the trees is 100% natural, newly fallen snow.

When we got to the top, Howie and Walt dawdled a little. As Bill and I headed toward Cascade, that was the last we would see of them until we met up back in the base lodge at 11:30. Oh well.. we started the day together at least...

For my first run, instead of taking Great Northern to Cascade, I decided to take FIS. It is just a little trail, maybe about 300 feet long. I hit a little icy bump just at the top, then pitched right into the light brush on skier right. Waist deep powder. Waves of powder flowing up my chest over my head as I skied straight down the trail. Probably as close to a Warren Miller Movie experience I will ever have. Bill meanwhile bombed down Great Northern. He was probably 300 yards ahead of me past the warning rope on Cascade. No friends on a powder day!

I had my vintage Volkl Vertigo powder skis on. (In April in Killington!..go figure!) They just floated on top of the powder down Cascade on skiers left. They just burst through any bumps created by earlier skiers. Just a few very little mid course correction turns. It seemed like the fastest run down Cascade in my life, never out of control, but powder flowing and going everywhere... I think I forgot to breath, because by the time I got to the junction with Downdraft I was sucking big breaths of air. I caught a glimpse of Bill just going bye the non functional Canyon Quad headed back toward the box, so I could not stop. I crouched into a full tuck to go down Spillway and caught up to Bill just about at the bottom of Highline. An unbelievable first run!

We did 6 more runs like that between Northridge, East Falls, and Double Dipper. Everywhere we went we found this beautify light champagne powder. Of all the trails in the Canyon, Double Dipper was probably the most difficult. Like Highline yesterday, the middle of Dipper was icy bumps as it had not been groomed. Skiers right by the trees had an enormous amount of powder that was blown in by the wind. But even then, on the fat Volkl's, which are designed for running in powder, it was basically 4 or 5 turns up to your knees, stop and suck in a deep breath, and repeat.

After that, I went back to my car to get my normal skies (Fischer RX8's) as the trails were getting pretty chopped. We did a few runs off the Snowdon Quad. The snow was so soft and pliable, that it was just a delight to do some high speed cruising. All through the morning, it had been snowing. It also seemed like the temperatures had been dropping...although we were so warmed up on the powder runs it could have been just a reflex action to slowing down. What ever the case, by 11:30 we had had enough...

When we got back the K1 base lodge, Howie and Walt were waiting. Friends just know where to meet on powder days...

New Passport has arrived

Passport Update When I arrived back at the inn from the mountain, the Post Office had delivered an Express Mail envelop from the US State Department with my new passport. Including a weekend, the turn around time to expedite the passport request was 8 days... beating the 10 business days quoted on the State Departments web site. I am impressed! A branch of the government that exceeds expectations! All this and a legitimate powder day at Killington in April.. life is good. Let it Snow!