Bluebird, 30 degrees.
This was, like, the third sunny day this week. What is this gonna cost us? Whatever the cost, you gotta enjoy it while you can. I went to Pico with Bret and Aidan today and it was just spectacular there. Aidan traveled all the way to the top on the Summit Express today. Bret was unsure but Aidan assured him that he would like Forty-Niner. It wasn’t Aidan’s first trip to the top but it might have been Bret’s. Kind of embarrassing when your four year old is better versed in the trails than you are, but Bret is working on learning some of the names. Forty-Niner was supremely buffed out. Many, many hockey stops were executed today as we took turns burying each other in snow all the way down Lower Pike. Good times. Not to mention Nutella in the lunch bag. Delicious. Well, that’s it for me for a bit, I’m heading to Utah tomorrow. I’m sure someone will update the Killington Snow Report while I’m gone. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it snows somewhere, here or there, we’ve got to stick together in these difficult times of little snowfall.

Dave Young is a former ski tuner from the Midwest. In fact, he was once assistant to the assistant manager at the biggest tuning shop in the mall. These days he mostly skis, photographs other people skiing, or hangs out in coffee shops pretending to write about skiing. Shop Our Online Store

Mostly sunny, 26 degrees.

Just as promised the sun came out today, delivering warmth and lighting the way. I love the sun, I really can’t say enough good things about it. It not only makes life possible on earth, but enjoyable as well. Last night was a chilly one so the sun, despite a valiant effort, never quite managed to soften the trails up, but you could certainly feel it’s warmth. It softened me up. I’m looking for a sunny spot on the floor to curl up and take a nap on right now. Snow conditions were a continuation of the prominent theme, groomed, fast, dusted with a generous sprinkling of granularity. With the warm sun and the songbirds flitting through the lift-side trees, I thought briefly about the coming spring and the return of black flies. And then I remembered that it’s only February; whew, I like the sun but I’m not crazy about the black flies. Thankfully we still have a couple solid months of winter to look forward to. While the sun made it a special day, it was extra special due to another rarity, even more rare than skiing in the sun, an opportunity for me to ski with Christine. I photo-documented it for proof. She makes a great subject, no?

Dave Young is a former ski tuner from the Midwest. In fact, he was once assistant to the assistant manager at the biggest tuning shop in the mall. These days he mostly skis, photographs other people skiing, or hangs out in coffee shops pretending to write about skiing. Shop Our Online Store

Cloudy, 20 degrees.

I traversed, today, the treacherous territory of procrastination and indecision. Consequently, I had time for only a very few runs. They were nice runs, and nicer yet because I had squared off against the prospect of making no runs. Where runs are concerned, some are generally better than none, even though, in general, I hate to make generalizations. At any rate, like I said, the runs were good. I maximized vertical by making two of my runs on Superstar, straight down the gut and at a high rate of speed. The other one, run that is, was on East Fall, a bit dark and lumpy but, still, representing one third of my total run allotment for the day, a good run. Cloudy was the dominant weather condition, and granular was the dominant snow condition, at least in my limited experience. Tomorrow, according to the interwebs, the sun will come out and shine brightly. I’ll try to pull it together and get some more runs in, and maybe even some photos. If you’re interested, I’ll post them here. Hell, I’ll post them here regardless of whether you’re interested or not.

Dave Young is a former ski tuner from the Midwest. In fact, he was once assistant to the assistant manager at the biggest tuning shop in the mall. These days he mostly skis, photographs other people skiing, or hangs out in coffee shops pretending to write about skiing. Shop Our Online Store

Kim enjoying the sunshine

Sunny, 35 degrees.

Wow, what a great day. The sun was out, the snow softened up a bit, fingers, toes, and noses stayed warm. I wish most days were like today. I say most because I’d still want some days to be stormy and puking snow, but most days could be like today. Everywhere I went it was pretty good. Highline was exceptionally nice, but Superstar and Skyeburst were also notably good. Especially lower Skyeburst where the sun had softened it a little more. And upper Bunny, along the fence from the race yesterday, was creeeaaamy. It looks like we might be in for a great week with lots of sunny skies and moderate, though still wintery, temperatures. We deserve it, don’t you think?

Dave Young is a former ski tuner from the Midwest. In fact, he was once assistant to the assistant manager at the biggest tuning shop in the mall. These days he mostly skis, photographs other people skiing, or hangs out in coffee shops pretending to write about skiing. Shop Our Online Store

Pretty little maidens, all in a row

Sunny, 17 degrees.

Hey, it’s not only Super Bowl Sunday, it’s also Christine’s birthday. Wish her a happy birthday. True to my word I went out skiing this afternoon. And like I expected, there was no one around. It worked out great for me, I took it nice and slow this morning and waited for the temperature to climb out of the single digits. Then, while you were all home making guacamole and whatnot in preparation for the big game, I was hogging all the awesome powder. Well, okay, there wasn’t exactly awesome powder. But the skies were blue and the air was comfortably crisp and the lift lines were short. And there was fresh man-made, here and there. It was pretty nice. I know, no one’s listening. Big game. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Dave Young is a former ski tuner from the Midwest. In fact, he was once assistant to the assistant manager at the biggest tuning shop in the mall. These days he mostly skis, photographs other people skiing, or hangs out in coffee shops pretending to write about skiing. Shop Our Online Store