"Mandatory meeting on the mountain," was shouted across the office at 9 a.m. this morning. The GM required the entire marketing team to rip a foot of fresh powder that blanketed the mountain. I glanced at my Outlook calendar beginning to digest all the meetings I'd be blowing off, but luckily the people most affected were feverishly scrambling around buckling their boots in the office.
Besides, when the General Manager insists you ski powder, it's no time for insubordination.
It's been a crazy week, I skied powder with journalists from San Francisco, I skied powder with visitors from South America, then skied more powder with the San Francisco crew, I guess the theme of the week is that it was all about skiing powder. But today, oh today, it all came together for the perfect culmination of super deep snow, on top of the previous deep snow providing the best day of the season so far, and that's saying something with the bar set pretty high already with our snowy December.
Now imagine this crew, five minutes from the "mandatory meeting" call, all are standing in front of Ramcharger with their gear on and ready to roll. I guess it's safe to say if you work in Big Sky Sales and Marketing there's a standing order to always be on alert for such occasions. We had Taylor, Meg, Lyndsey, Lindsey, myself, snowboarder Chad and the Banger pulling up the rear, (he's got more layers of the latest ski fashions to coordinate.)
The call is made to explore Andesite as we listen to the avalanche control work thumping in the snowy distance of Lone Peak. The first run is perfect with untouched Big Horn. They groomed it over the night, but early enough that 6 new inches fell on it after the cats left. While the untouched side on the left was giving the true total of 12 new inches on top of soft snow. Brandon may take some time living it down at the bottom when Taylor asked him how he enjoyed the groomer while the rest of us were in powder heaven. But in his defense, he skis pow all the time and rarely gets out early enough to ski powder groomers, so despite continued harassment, he held his ground.
But from there on out, there'd be no more choices, this was a deep day, best served up in between all the trees of Andesite. We skied Bear's Lair, Snake Pit, Mad Wolf, Elk Park Ridge, Wounded Knee, War Dance, the entire time rarely crossing any one else's tracks. Every run deserved another one and it went on and on through the morning. Skiing trees with such deep snow is a treat because you don't have to concern yourself with silly things like controlling speed, as the snow and the pitch of Andesite keeps you in a comfortable spot where everyone is a hero skier. 
Each run was the last one until we'd take another.
After my Snake Pit lap where every turn threw pillowy shots in my face, I rode up Thunderwolf caked in snow from head to toe. I was asked if I had fallen and all I could do was grin and laugh knowing the melting snow jammed up and down my jacket was there from the previously untouched powder flying from my ski tips.
Finally, as lunch time neared and a sufficient amount of marketing had been completed, Taylor led the team for a final summary of the meeting into Blue Room. Again, treated with epic snow that was STILL untouched. The large group skied it together and I was able to think to myself how fortunate we are that this is what we call our jobs, and just think, tomorrow's the weekend.
How was your day at work?
We'll see you out there,
Dax
