That’s right. I only end ski seasons on pow days. Well, at least I’ve done that for the last three years. And it’s not like the last day was in the middle of February or anything. These days have been in late March and early April; 4/2/10, 3/20/09, 3/23/08.
This particular last day (which, yes, was a month ago) was perhaps the most epic. Why? First, because it was in April. Frigging APRIL! Second, because I hadn’t skied in Washington since January because the season sucked so bad. Third, well, because it was a really deep day.
We started by finding new tree lines off Forest Queen because the top of the hill was closed due to high winds. We were a bit worried at first since Forest Queen is reserved for gumbies, but after finding these lines somewhere between Bear Pits and Wally’s Way, we had no problem not getting summit goods. These tree lines were steep, the snow quality was fantastic, other skiers were non existent, and it was deep. We must have lapped those trees a half dozen times.
When the winds died down and they finally opened the top, it was complete mayhem. The line on Rainier express was probably 40 minutes long as every skier on the hill bore down on that chairlift. But the wait was well worth it. We ripped the sickest lines down Sunnyside, Middle Ferk, and Exterminator. There’s nothing quite like maching a bowl of untracked foot to foot and half deep pow on reverse camber/reverse sidecut skis. You can go so fast, butter so many turns, but stay in such control. Really, there’s nothing like it.
And there’s also nothing like ending the season skiing 22,000 vertical feet of pow.
