2.5 Inches. Makes all the difference.

So, my ski window is pretty much dictated by life.  Such it is for all but the true ski bum.  Lucky was I to find snow falling as I headed up the hill early Sunday morning.  I think some supposed it was a real snow, as a few seemed eager to get up the road.  If you need to be early, leave early.  Enough said.  Anyway, the resort reported 2.5 inches, and that was on top of snow that had seen 50F for the past few afternoons.  No thanks.  So I opted to head out for a hike.

Starting the ski day off in the front yard, we had to build a kicker.  J goes big.

O to a test run and then was all about sticking the 180s.

Old Man of the Woods was found haunting the wind swept skin track.

Court ballet turns with his one arm down to his own kicker.

Play in the yard, and then I was off to meet my partner at Carson Pass.  Big day for me, as I am usually to lazy to drive the 15 minutes from the valley.  Sat in the lot, sipped coffee and watched the winds ripping across my hood.  Sure looked chilly out there.  Was starting to wonder if I had brought along enough layers.  And I was wondering if perhaps a little more snow fell at Kirkwood than the crest.  In fact, it almost seemed more snow was falling west Silver Lake.  Court arrived and we quickly decided to head back closer to Kirkwood.  And it was the right idea.  A lot less wind, and some deeper snow.

Jamie practices his levitation technique before heading to Emigrant Lake.

Broadway seemed the call for the day with the blowing in sweet soft buff.

Max wiggles his way into a soft line.

The snow was okay, but I bet the bumps on Monte were money...

Spent the day lapping wintery soft snow.  Explored a new zone with a few inches of buff on tough.  Jumped off a few things.  Monday was a good day to use lift access to some side country.  Sure, the good snow was atop a few hundred feet of exposure, but it was grippy and fun.  Two point fine inches?  Just enough to make everything ski just a bit better.