Ahh, now is the time to be outside skiing, the sun is shining bright, the temperature is comfortable and the snowpack is the deepest it will be all season. After a season of making efforts to coordinate a ski with Jules from our accounting team, I actually made a meeting request to make sure today would be the day. Jules is enjoying his first winter in Big Sky having moved here from Westchester, PA. This guy is serious about skiing, getting out every day that he can. Just a short 10 years ago, I had a similar position to what Jules does today.
W
e started up Swift Current and the day was absolutely gorgeous, but don’t forget the sunscreen with the deep blue skies. We rolled to the Triple and took a South Wall bowl lap to get the legs warmed up. The snow was really nice to sink an edge into and we blasted down the run. We were 
watching people screaming down the gullies so we made that our
next mission. The Tram line was jovial seeing many friends from Victor, to Barb (the newest Tram junky of the 08-09 season), Lee, Heiselman and on and on. It was all smiles while losing track of time visiting and before we knew it we were loading onto the tram dock and were on top of the world. Today was one when you could see the Tetons and a great look at Cedar. (see right)
We skied Otter Slide which was nice and chalky and completely clean, then off to upper Marx for the Gullies traverse. I took 2nd from the top and made the late season decision to try out 3rd gully to the bottom. As good as the top was, I couldn’t quite keep my rhythm and got myself constricted in the constriction, but that’s OK, I made my way through and we snuck off toward the Turkey Traverse for another South Wall route.
We decided to go all the way to Exit Chute and then cut that hard right to the final turns above the Jay Walk. At the top we decided that we had better work our way back to our offices, but I was completely surprised to find really creamy, winter powder on that section. It was so good I had to call Jules in for a change of game plans to do it one more time. We spun around and Jules took the lead off the traverse. This guy is charging way bigger lines than anything I would have considered doing 10 years ago, he’s already skied the Big Couloir in his first season, something that might have taken me five years to muster up the courage. I like his aggressive style, perfect complement to this mountain and its lines.
I took him to my favorite finish which is Rice Bowl to Buffalo Jump, as expected, we found more powder on the north facing wall of steeps through the trees and then were greeted with spring time softening cream for the kickers in Buffalo Jump.
There are only five days left on this season, you’d be crazy not to finish strong, I know I plan to.
We’ll see you out there,
Dax
