Sunshine. It is better to skin when the sun is out than when the cold wind blows snow in your face and there is no sign of it quitting. The sunshine lets me skin without an extra jacket and a hat, and to see the others further down the skintrack, advancing upward, smiling, taking in the celestial love. Day three was all sunshine and twelve inches of powder on top of a nasty rain crust. Underneath the rain crust is the faceted layer, one that will haunt the year with avalanches I'm afraid. Sunshine is also better than avalanches.
Nate and I skin ahead and put lines in the fresh snow. By the time we establish an up track we meet with Danielle, Shane and the man who fired me from REI all those years ago- Mike. We joke about it now. It is far in the past and exactly what I needed to happen when it did. Now, we are skiing together. If he were buried in the snow, I would dig him out. We all put our mark on the hill, one at a time, like delicate strokes from the artist on the canvas of the hillside.
The next day I skied at Solitude. I didn't realize how wonderfully framed our tracks are from the top of the Eagle lift. On every ride up I see people oogling over the marks in the snow across the drainage. I hear someone say, those look so good. I smile and think, "It was. It was so good."
