Hello everyone,
The snow keeps flying and the powder turns keep coming as we're enjoying a snowy holiday week. I just noticed that my last blog entry disappeared, since I don't keep them and it seems to be gone, here's a re-cap, I skied with Taylor and Victor, it was fun, deep snow, I crashed, they laughed and we all went back to work.
But on to skiing on Christmas Day, a day the only work I was doing was trying to keep up with a magazine editor and professional freeskier. I started by catching up with Annie Fast who is the editor of Transworld Snowboarding and one time Big Sky rider. I was joined by a couple of other snowboarders and as I clicked into my skis, I had the Sesame Street jingle, "one of these guys is doing his own thing" singing in my head. But here at Big Sky skiers and snowboarders are always joining up, no teams here, we're all after the best snow and terrain around.
We went up Andesite and found super deep snow in Snake Pit, face shots, thigh deep, but that area deserves huge respect as even with the deep snow, there can be some snakes lurking underneath (maybe that's how they named it). But at the bottom and feeling good, I was glad to get in there for my first 08-09 Andesite lap. We also skied deep snow in Congo, which generally has less undergrowth and finished with a carvy Tippy's Tumble.
From there it was up Swifty where I caught up with Kina Pickett from TGR and Warren Miller fame. He's a transplant from Jackson to Bozeman and is looking to make Big Sky his home mountain. I had to oblige and show him around, even though he can ski so much faster than me, I sometimes wondered who was the guide. We all as a group skied the Natural Half-Pipe near Lower Morning Star. This section is a ski school favorite, especially for kids, but I'm telling you big kids can have fun in there too. It was perfect as my snowboarding friends headed right to Mr. K to finish their day and Kina and cut left for Challenger laps for the rest of the day.
What we found was really smooth, perfect wind-buff skiing intermixed with powder shots. I think Kina used the phrase like skiing on carpet, it was fun as we explored Highway, 17th Green, Outer Limits, Moonlight and Todd's Hole. I felt pretty good on giving Kina a taste of Montana powder skiing on steeps and we chilled out following our day at Andiamo's, Big Sky's newest and coolest place to eat in the Village Center. There was a special on pizza and we got to tell fun skiing stories with a great group of friends.
Working at a resort, my family sometimes worries what I do with myself not being able to go home during the Christmas Holiday week, but it's safe to say we enjoy the best of both worlds as our friends become our family and we get to ski Big Sky alongside hundreds of other families gathered here to celebrate.
We'll see you out there,
Dax
