What's your best ski day ever?

[mkhouse]

I looked through past threads and didn't see this one started yet ... what was your single best ski day ever?

I have one day in particular that stands out for me ... it was about 3 or 4 years ago, January 2nd. There had been a big storm coming in to the Tahoe area for New Year's weekend, and most of the crowd already in Tahoe left for fear of the weather, and much of the crowd that would have come in just for New Year's couldn't make it. I had a winter ski lease and a bunch of us decided to wait it out. Well, New Year's Day was a huge storm -- we tried to drive to ski and couldn't see the bumper of our car. The storm broke overnight, though, and January 2nd was beautiful and sunny. Many of our friends went to ski at Northstar, and one friend and I went to Alpine Meadows. The ski area was empty, and we had gorgeous snow all day. We hiked up past Keyhole to lower saddle, and I skied in the lightest, deepest powder of my life. There was just enough of a breeze that our tracks were smoothed out by the time we made it back up. We sprinted down to the base and got sandwiches, then hiked back up and ate on one of the rocks at the top of keyhole, and didn't see another person up there the entire time. Best day ever.

 

[SnowHot]

This is a flawed question!:p

I am heard saying "This is the best ski day ever!" almost every day I ski. Truth..........Ask anyone who's skied with me. Rain or shine! That's what I say!

 

[ski diva]

This is a hard one....I've had a lot of great ski days.

Two stand out:

The first was at Steamboat during and after a three foot powder dump. Incredible conditions and my first exposure to real powder.

The second was at Snowmass, and the company made the day. I was there with some very good friends, and we just laughed, laughed, and laughed some more the entire day. Blue, blue skies, not overly cold temps, great conditions, & good friends. Who can ask for more?

 

[Quiver Queen]

Best....later on

My best ski day ever (3/24/02) was at Sugarbush, VT, and isn't remembered for the quality of the snow or the quality of my skiing. It's remembered for the brilliant sunshine and quality of the company.........and that it's the day, while on the run called "Domino," I was introduced to the wonderful man that became my husband.

 

[Lola]

I can't say it was my best day, but I do remember a very surreal day.

We were at Sunshine Mountain in Banff, Canada. If you have never been there, when you go to Sunshine, you park your car and then take a 45-minute gondala ride up the mountain to the base lodge. Then you take chairlifts up from there - so you are very, very high up in the Canadian Rockies.

We were skiing on Goat's Eye Mountain, which means that we were well above the tree line, so there were no trees, just rocks and snow. The sky was pure, bright blue without a cloud in sight. The sun was high and bright, and it was one of those strange days when the moon was out as well as the sun.

And, while I am not an expert about these things called snow dogs, there were arched rainbows around the sun. Evidently, rainbows can and do form around the sun. You can read about them on the NASA website here.

Anyway, in addition to no trees, the moon being out, the sun surrounded by rainbows, and no clouds in the sky - there was another phenomenon. It was so cold out that the moisture in the air was freezing, and since the sun was so bright, you could see the frozen moisture crystals twinkling everywhere - kind of like when you notice the dust moving in the air when a beam of sunlight shines through a window.

So there I was, riding the chairlift with my dad (who also happens to be lilgeorg's husband), and we just started laughing. We almost felt as though we had left planet earth and we were skiing on some distant planet where the sun is always surrounded by rainbows, and the atmosphere always twinkles, and the moon and sun are always out together in a bright blue sky without a single cloud, and the skiing was always fabulous. Talk about surreal!

I will never forget that day, and laughing with my dad on the chairlift - what a great time we had skiing! Oh, I forgot to mention, after the chairlift ride - they opened an expert trail with fresh corduroy! Now that was a day, my friends - that was a day. :D

 

[mkhouse]

We almost felt as though we had left planet earth and we were skiing on some distant planet where the sun is always surrounded by rainbows, and the atmosphere always twinkles, and the moon and sun are always out together in a bright blue sky without a single cloud, and the skiing was always fabulous. Talk about surreal!

Can we join you on your planet? I bet you'd get some takers here.

 

[Snowsong]

There are so many to pick from, but I think skiing with my family. I was the only one in my family who skiied for 20+ yrs. My parents were going to Switzerland a couple years ago, and my father wanted to ski while he was there just to say he did it. I taught him to ski before the trip, and when he returned from the trip, I had to find ski equipment for him. He skis every weekend, I couldn't get rid of him if I wanted to! He is in his late 60's and wants to ski as much as he can while he is able. I also made sure I taught my nephews to ski when they were young. Now my older nephew Ryan, 16, is an instructor at my area and is working on getting his level 1 for his sr. project in school. He and his brother stay with me at the mt. about every other weekend during the winter.

 

[Grace]

skiing through a snowstorm in Breckenridge last year...and getting my first chance to ski powder.

 

[volklgirl]

Skiing at night, in the pouring rain, at Crystal last year. We kept watching more and more people going inside as their Camo/Varsity/Carhart jackets got soaked through. Finally, we were the only ones on the hill. The snow was soft and fast, the rain was warm, and it was just the 2 of us under the lights. Ahhhhh.

 

[Shellski]

February 4, 2003 - skiing with my best ski buddy, it had been dumping all night in Vail, we started the morning doing laps down the side of Game Creek Bowl, each run in freshies, no one else was skiing there. It was his first trip to Vail, so he was stoked. I suggested heading into the back bowls, he was sceptical because it was so good where we were. We dropped in out the back at Wildwood, and found a locally famous gully that traps the windblown snow, and skied knee-thigh deep powder until we couldn't physically ski any more.

The day after that was great too, skiing all around the mountain with 10 members of my family, my parents included, all together and interchanging in smaller groups, doing some fantastic runs and having a general lark. Oh, and then we got married at Eagles Nest, that topped it off.

 

[ski diva]

I love how you just threw the "oh, and then we got married" part in. :D

 

[volklgirl]

Ding, ding, ding, ding....we have a winner!! :D :D

 

[Shellski]

Ding, ding, ding, ding....we have a winner!! :D :D

Yeah, pretty hard to beat endless thigh-deep powder, huh?

 

[ski diva]

Bump! Anyone care to add to this?

 

[tcarey]

Crystel Newbound and I were taking our usual 1 run in the morning after about a 3 inch snowfall.The top part of Sapphire was groomed to perfection.As we aprroached the second part of the trail we saw a few people standing where the trail falls away.We never stop on this part and as we came over the lip the trail was glittering like diamonds.It was the coolest thing ever-so we got the freshies that everyone was just staring at.It was sweet!
The other time was when I passed my L3 skiing at Sunday River!!

T

 

[tradygirl]

OMG....best moment ever?? This is impossible, but I'll throw a few of my faves out. However, I have to split them into BBC (before backcountry) and ABC (after backcountry). :D

Sorry in advance for the novel, but this stuff gets me so excited!!

BBC:
One day in college, I woke up in the darkness to a dumping snowstorm. Not the cold, windy, blizzard type, but the silent, peaceful, flakes-the-size-of-your-fist storms that we get in Utah. Before I could even get to my phone, it was ringing. My friend Tara and I had already decided to ditch class and head to Alta.

We booked up the canyon and jumped in line on the Germania lift. Miraculously, the clouds parted and the sun came up into blue sky. We hit the high traverse and headed toward High Boy. I'd never skied it before because it scared me, but with a couple feet of blower, today was the day. First tracks all the way down Rustler. That's all I can say. It changed my life. Needless to say, the whole rest of the day was face-shots, but that High Boy run....

ABC:
My god, how do I choose? I'll pick two highlights.
First, another day with a foot or two of new that began at Alta. First tracks on Backside, followed by more fresh shots off the Castle. By 11:00, stuff was getting skied out, so my husband and I grabbed our skins and beacons and headed for the gate. Peace at last. Something about leaving the craziness of the resort made my whole body relax. We hit a few shots right outside the gate that were unbelievably deep, and decided to skin up the ridge. Lo and behold, it started dumping as we headed up to the peak. We skied two laps on Wolverine Bowl with our tracks filling in without seeing a soul. I can't remember snow like that since.

Last year in Jackson. Since it was 10-20 below the weekend we were up there, we decided to avoid freezing our faces off at the resort and stick to touring. Our friend wanted to take us into Grand Teton NP, so we geared up for a long day. After 3000+ ft and 4 hours of skinning, we reached Amphitheater Lake, right at the base of the Grand Teton. The views across the valley were unreal, the sun was out, and the sky was crystal clear. After sun bathing for a while on the rocks, staring at the huge peaks around us, we were treated to 3000 feet of continuous sugary, blower powder through sparse glades back to the meadow. Another day that made me shake my head in awe.

 

[altagirl]

Oooh, I've had several of those first tracks down High Boy or Lone Pine days... two of them stand out as being completely effortless, with powder blowing over your head. No thinking where to turn or what to do, just floating top to bottom. Perfection.

And I've had afternoons of free refills on one of my favorite runs making enormous GS turns through the powder where it was almost unbearable when the lifts stopped. I remember one where the road closed behind me as I went up the canyon. It stormed so hard and there were only a few of us left skiing and it was just perfect - riding the lift alone with one or two people I knew doing laps around me, all of us trying to get in every last lap we possibly could. It snowed more overnight, but the wind buffed it out, and while it was good, it wasn't the same. And I knew that - one of those moments you know is so perfect, and it won't be the same again. You're just trying to absorb it all so you can remember it.

Backcountry stuff is totally different for me. I've had fun, but I always feel weird in touring bindings and it's a struggle to stay balanced with that funky ramp angle. I do love that feeling when you get to the top and look down and it's just you and a couple friends in the middle of nowhere. I've had some really good turns in the BC, and some amazingly beautiful and peaceful moments, but I've never had those effortless, perfect powder turns in the backcountry that I've had inbounds. Very close sometimes, but not quite... perfect.

The tradeoff, of course, is the mad adrenaline rush of racing your way to get to your line on a powder day. Which can be fun in it's own way - and the contrast of the full on war to get your line with the instant immersion into total peacefulness once you drop in is pretty wild too.

Tradygirl, your Grand Teton trip sounds incredible! :D

 

[lisaski]

Wow! Reading about all these awesome ski days really has me day-dreaming. Thanks for posting everyone! I really am enjoying this thread. I have had so many great ski days that it's hard to write about one in particular. Most of them involve a bug dump of snow and skiing the steeps in those conditions. But, here's one that I think was very cool. I have taken clinics from "The X-Team" on three occasions. One was given at both Sugar Bowl and Squaw Valley. One of the days at Sugar Bowl, there was a huge storm. It dumped all day long and what an awesome day it was skiing with one of the coaches in the morning and another in the afternoon. Our instruction was like this: "turns? who needs to turn? Just point 'em". We did lap after lap on the east face of Disney chair, skiing as fast as we could and just floating on the powder. By the end of the day, over three feet of snow had fallen.

 

[Greeley]

One of my most memorable was during a trip to Tahoe. We were staying in Tahoe City and woke up to snow drifts as high as our SUV in the parking lot. We found out that Squaw & Alpine were closed and the guys in the ski shop suggested Homewood.
We skied bottomless pow all day at Homewood, it clear off in the afternoon so the view of Lake Tahoe was an added benefit.
Remember the saying 'There are no friends on a powder day'? Our friend lost one of his poles on the 1st trip down, we told him 'good luck' and continued to ski. He had just found the pole as we were about to lap him for the 2nd time.

 

[pinto]

[Mine was a day in Zermatt during March 2006. I'll post some excerpts from the journal I kept on the trip. We had been planning on heli-skiing, except the weather had been too sketchy every morning.]

Unfortunately, we woke up to snow. It was quite beautifully falling outside the window (dumping, really), but we were disappointed that it didn’t look like the helis would fly again. The snow turned to rain, then stopped, and we left the hotel.

We met the group at Sunnegga this day to decide where to go. There was some talk of the weather clearing and the possibility that some helis would fly in the afternoon, but I wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work. I just followed onto the buses and down the road to head up Klein Matterhorn. We trudged into the gondola and, after a few minutes, went through the clouds, only to emerge into a cloudless blue sky and white Alps all around! It was breathtaking.

We unloaded, rode another chair, and Asher [one of our guides] set to work. That beautiful little snow that had ruined our heli trip had left a foot and more of powder up on the mountain, and Asher dispensed with formality and started ducking ropes everywhere (which is okay in CH, by the way). He led us to fresh tracks almost all the way down.

The coolest thing was that [my son, then 11], with the help of longer skis that he’d traded for yesterday, GOT IT. He followed Asher down run after run, and after not too many turns, he was skiing powder, and well. The runs weren’t too steep, which was helpful, but the snow was quite deep (I’d say at least 18” in places). Asher was definitely on a mission. He said later it was the best skiing he had all season! (It wasn’t a banner snow year for Zermatt, so that wasn’t saying TOO much, and it wasn't the most challenging terrain, but it was still the best day I have ever had, because of the circumstances: skiing fresh tracks under a cloudless sky in the shadow of the Matterhorn?!?)

Asher was on the phone quite a bit, speaking with the other guides, but I wasn’t paying too much attention. After a couple of hours of powder (we still had fresh until 1:00!) we headed up the cable car to Klein Matterhorn again. We were going to eat lunch in Italy, so I figured that’s where we were headed.

Well, we were. But AFTER a heli trip! There was a heli pad up there where the group was meeting, and two choppers were taking groups of five on trips up and around the Matterhorn. I was floored. We met up with [husband and daughter, then 8], who were about to board the heli. I had felt mildly guilty about my morning, since [dh] was skiing with [dd] and I knew he was missing the powder. Luckily he was on Cloud 9 when I saw him: “BEST DAY EVER!”

And it only got better. I can’t even begin to describe the awesomeness, the majesty of seeing the Alps from just above. We circled the Matterhorn (gulp!) and then flew around a little, looked at the valley of Zermatt, Cervinia, the pilot pointed out MontBlanc in the distance … I rode with [ds], and it was just the most amazing thing I’ve ever done.

And that, after the best morning ever!

So, we got off, high-fived, and just flew down the slopes and across the border to lunch. The restaurant in Italy was called Chez Etoile … we had a view of the south and west sides of the Matterhorn (Cervino over there), and one more fantastic lunch. [ds] pronounced THIS spaghetti even better than the first night in Zurich. It was warm, sunny, and just what you picture when you see people dining slopeside in Europe. Wow.

We had just ordered espressos and dessert when guide Donald urgently informed us we didn’t have time, we needed to get out. (My son did manage to eat ¾ of his chocolate cake in about 30 seconds, though.) The day had started pretty late, and we didn’t eat until 2:30 or 3, and there is a little problem with ski lifts closing and international borders, etc. We zoomed to the bottom of the lift and made it back into Switzerland with 10 minutes to spare.

We had a lot of skiing left, and it was late. We were still on a high from the previous part of the day, though – and everyone was skiing just great. So many people had really improved, including [dd]. She was ripping!

We stopped at the same après ski as the previous day, and visited on the slopes for the last time.

[Rest of photos are at https://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/segbrown/Switzerland/ if you aren't bored to death already; "best day ever" starts on the second page of the album.]