12/12/2012 4:44:00 PM

POWDER, POWDER, POWDER, AND MORE POWDER; holy cow! Today was a powder day for the Big Sky history books. When we first opened at 9am this morning we had already received 6+ inches of snow and this unexpected sneaky storm truly delivered. At a rate of nearly 3 inches an hour, we received 20+ inches of snow from 9am to 4pm covering the whole mountain in a fluffy blanket of pure MT cold smoke.

After finishing my morning meetings, I split and headed for the lift. Making no stops, I set my sights on Challenger and got my first face shots just off the J-Walk. The blower, over-the-head powder continued the whole way to the lift where I reconvened with my buddy Turner. While riding up, we watched the few other skiers on Challenger slash turns and bounce around as they skied under the lift. Once we slid down the unloading ramp, we skied away towards the top of 17th Green. I began to salivate when I looked down the run and saw countless un-skied lines to be had (at 1:00pm). Once I dropped in, every turn seemed to bury me under a cloud of powder. The next turn would reveal itself for only a moment before I went under again. Laps like this continued for the duration of my break and it only got better.

Lunch break face shots as epic as today are hard to top and 12/12/12 will always be a day remembered.

-Kipp Proctor