Wednesday Mornin'

The alarm went off at 4:40am and I was already awake waiting for it to go off. It had snowed all night. In the Subie, bust through the unplowed streets and I’m on my way to the turnoff to Snowbowl. I see a plow, but quickly realize he was done with all of the first 50 yards of the 6 mile road. There was one set of tracks going up – pretty fresh – so I went for it. The clearance on the Subie is 8 inches, and the snow seemed to range from 4inches to 14inches depending on drifts. White knuckle driving fo’ sho’. I turned on NPR and got enthralled with a story about Coco Chanel because I needed a distraction from the driving which had me all wound up. I was pretty confident I’d make it to the top, but I wasn’t sure until I hit the last mile when I saw plows working the resort parking lot at the Bowl. YES!

Board on the back, spikes on the feet, car key double zipped inside my snowpants. Snowcats had been out since maybe 5am, so I followed tracks ¾ of the way up in the dark and was only sinking down about 3 inches on each step. I’m sure my path looked like a drunken ‘Sconnie driving home from a bar on a snow machine. I kept losing the cat track in the blowing snow and couldn’t see the trees well enough to navigate until I got into some protected parts of the slope. I traversed across a catwalk out of the wind, and realized I wasn’t going to the top today. Looking up, the blowing snow was out of control, and I had to be home by 8am.

Boot change, board on, off the cat track and into powder that was mid-thigh. Deepest snow I have ever boarded in. Down the steeps without so much as a turn or two, and onto a 100 yard flatter section….stalled out. Board off – posthole it for 50 yards until the slope dropped, and finally – to the car. I had the key. It started. Covered head to toe in snow, I had a very little grin on my frozen face. That….was….fun……I think. Sorta. Maybe.

I gladly followed a plow down to town at 20mph, and rolled into the driveway about 10 minutes late…..my neighbor had plowed it for me. Then I had a big-ass grin on my wet face. That WAS fun.