The last TWISI for the 08-09 season, it certainly finished with a bang, thousands of people flocked to Big Sky for the pond skim for a record closing weekend! We hosted Glen Plake, had perfect blue-bird conditions and the spring skiing was amazing. 
I’ll combine a few days, because each one was a blast as I booted up Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We were hosting
Glen Plake for a television show and he likes to ski big terrain, our first run of the day was the Big Couloir and after some turns in the Bowl, we all went zip-lining to fly through the tree tops. We hosted a party in the Whiskey Jack’s that was truly memorable while Plake signed autographs all through the afternoon and evening.
Saturday was even bigger, all the overflow parking filled up as we have officially created a “can’t miss” event with the Spring Run-Off. With tons of terrain open, the mountain spread everyone out and we skied off of TU, just to the right of 6th Gully. I had never skied that terrain before, but spring snow has a nice way of sticking to the steeps when we have the big, late snowfalls of the past 2 seasons. I got through clean and Glen was giving me advice on how to better keep my skis to the ground in exposed terrain. Quite honestly, lessons from Glen are appreciated and flattering, but I’m not sure standing above cliffs below a giant cornice is exactly the place to try “new things”. We finished the day slurping up springy corn on Elk Park Ridge, Congo and Blackfoot.
For the afternoon it was the big show to the double ponds, Chad hosted a spectacularly successful event and with the team of Lindsey, Chris, Jenny, Anthony and the MC talent of Brandon Bang, it couldn’t have went better or smoother while people were swimming in the icy waters under the blue sky. The terrain park crew really outdid themselves with two giant ponds (the second one was a step down from the first). They did an amazing job all season and definitely had their finest work for the crowds to ooh and ahh for the finishing event.
Glen even joined in the fun for a ballet act in the run-in, then to a successful skim across the first pond and a crowd pleasing flip straight into the second one. Following the pond skim action, the crowd went to the plaza for the live band, Politician, playing a solid show.
Sunday was more sunshine and we went toward the A-Z chutes and the Pinnacles as the sun would be softening up the snow to a perfect corn consistency. With the film crew in tow, we were greeted with amazing views and Glen took the time for photos and fist pumps to all the folks walking by. With the corn, we finished the season with a couple of Challenger laps, and you’ve heard me say before, I find spring snow to be a close second to deep powder, something about how well you can edge really ups the fun factor for me.
We finished with Logan joining us for some ballet lessons down Mr. K. I’ll be honest I did not take to it immediately, but I suspect Logan was enough of a natural that we should not be surprised to see him pull a few moves with his Tram friends next season.
We’d like to thank everyone for making it such a memorable season, I’m hopeful you enjoyed reading about our days on the mountain and hope you’re already making plans to join us next year for the biggest skiing in America.
We’ll see you out there,
Dax
