My inability to take time off from work for powder days continues. A major upslope event hit Jay Thursday into Friday. Friday was a no-go for me. I assumed Saturday would be a packed powder day.

Thankfully, the wind went hard on Friday and the Jet never opened. So, the full untouched and drifted storm total was untracked from the Jet for Saturday. The trails were picked clean by the wind, which meant that the woods were loaded.

Adding to this good fortune was the time of year. The two weeks preceding Christmas are great weeks for powder days. Even die hard powder hounds fail to show up due to family obligations and gift shopping.

The result was boot to knee deep untracked without competition. The Flyer has yet to debut this season. That pushed more traffic to Stateside than usual. But even with the extra skiers, lines were not too bad and untracked off map snow lasted longer than normal.

After going hard on Saturday, I decided to take Sunday off. It was supposed to snow Sunday. But it was not an overnight storm. The new snow would be skied in throughout the day on Sunday without accumulating, so it wasn’t worth going back-to-back.

However, when I checked the Sunday afternoon snow report, I discovered that the Bonnie never ran. Monday would be an unexpected bonus. The grand total was “only” seven inches. But with strong winds, seven inches can feel like double or nothing.

After an extended wait, patrol finally gave the thumbs up. I had the fourth chair. I couldn’t help but take a rare untracked run down Deliverance. The snow was soft, dense, and supportive. A delightful bonus on top of Saturday’s excess.

I rode the Bonnie all morning and, after several runs, I continued to find plenty of untracked. Patrol had Goat roped off (I assume it was a sheet of ice from the wind), so I accessed the goods via a short sidestep up from the Goat/Quai intersection.

The crowd was minimal, a complete non-factor. I rode the Bonnie solo more often than not. Even after a 20-minute delay, there were less than 100 people at line up. It was old-school low-key, (adjective style rather than adverbial).

The untracked would last all day. But my legs were shot from Saturday and I wasn’t going to kill myself for “only” seven inches. I could have put more in the bank (you never know how long the good times will last). But I got my fill and left before noon, more than satisfied.

Even one lap of untracked was more than I had expected today. It was all just bonus.

Down the Haynes I went, first tracks on a clean canvas. Eight inches felt like eighty centimeters. My favorite snow condition, even harder to get than knee deep untracked in the woods.

Almost a foot of supportive, springy powder on top of groomed. Just enough to not bottom out, but not too much that you can’t rip huge, high-speed arcs. Effortless and amazing.

The energy transfers automatically from turn to turn. I don’t yell nor cry out in joy. I am speechless. It has been years since I’ve felt this perfect layering of powder over groomed.

After that, I went into the trees, where I skied untracked every run until I left. Lifts were ski on all morning and untracked lines stayed fresh all day.

December powder days are always amongst the best of the season. And day-before-Christmas powder days are always exceptionally notable for the lack of crowds.

Possibilities are paralyzing. How best should I spend my time? What interests me the most? I shall never “be telling this with a sigh“. But the decision making process is still fraught with uncertainty.

Not so much for selecting between choices, but rather in identifying my wants and desires. What are my motivations? What are my goals? Will I see them through? Seems pretty heavy, huh? In truth, my writings so far this season have something in common:

I spent the past year following in love with a country and learning its language. But I fear that the honeymoon may be over. Was I flailing due to the challenge? Was I waffling for lack of will power? Or, did I simply want to learn about another culture and its language?

I think it is the latter. Better to learn a little about a lot of things than to devote years to one thing, at the exclusion of all others. But reframing a perceived failure into a decision to learn something new has been an emotional roller-coaster.

Last week’s rain/freeze cycle locked up a solid base. On top of that, six inches of dense and supportive snow fell overnight, and more snow fell throughout the day. The mountain was deserted, untracked was abundant, and conditions exceeded expectations.

All on map and off map glades were good to go, but off map woods and lower elevation glades warrant careful and alert skiing. So far, I am four for four on powder days this season. Not bad.