Well another storm has hit us over this Christmas vacation. It was a great day of skiing and very cold, which actually makes for great powder. We received over 30” of snow out of the storm this week. I knew today was going to be the best day of skiing. Yesterday the wind speeds were high some of the mountain was closed. I gave my kids the night before warning “it’s going to be a powder day”. And this is where it went south. My son Lucas started to get sick soon after my powder alert and he woke me up at 4:30 a.m. needing medicine. All I could think was that he must have strep.  I immediately got a doctor’s appointment for 8:30 a.m. knowing if we were in the clear, we were still on for the powder day. The strep test was negative but the doctor asked “it looks like your planning on skiing”? I said “yes is this bad?” To my surprise she answered “No I think the fresh air will do him good.”

We pulled up to the mountain in perfect time for the lifts to open, BUT as we get on our first chair on Carpenter I saw that it is already 10:15 p.m. How the heck can it take us an hour to just get on the chair?! My son reminds me “there are no friends on a powder day” and I reply “maybe there should be no kids.” HA! I had decided to drop off their equipment at the loading zone area to make it easier on us and so far, so good. I then parked the car and Stefan says he forgot his helmet…ugh! Luckily I put it in the front seat. No I wasn’t wearing it! All still good…. Then I give my boys their season passes and much to my organized surprise Stefan points out that I gave him his dad’s pass. Is this my fault or his? Another ugh! Time to get all of us dressed. For some strange reason Lucas can’t get his boots on… another ugh! Time is ticking. The last 10 days he could get these boots on no problem, I don’t understand! I guess this is the get ready hour I just didn’t anticipate.

Finally we met up with our friends, the Davidson’s from Las Vegas.  The boys saw each other from the chair and we waited at the top of Carpenter for them to catch up. At this point I knew we needed more kids to even this equation out. As soon as the children saw each other all was good and the kids were game and eagerly asking me where we were going?

Since I hadn’t skied Mayflower yet this year and knowing that it wasn’t open the day before, we immediately headed east. We entered Mayflower Bowl at the top and shot down. The 4 kids stopped at the top of the rock face and all looked over discussing their lines. I stayed back to be the sweeper, however I was hardly needed as all the kids launched into the bowl and skied the powder effortlessly. I waited a bit so I could also enjoy what they skied after I saw they were all clear and didn’t need to be picked up. I skied down and had fresh face shots until I met up with the boys. My day could have been done right then and I would have been completely satisfied with just those few turns. There is nothing better than those first few turns in fresh powder…it that makes all the hustle of the morning just slip away. Of course, my son interrupts my moment with a “not bad mom.”

Our group then continued with my suggestions to ski Ruins of Pompeii to Triangle Trees. I have to say Triangle Trees are always the best! I wanted to make another run there, but we decided to continue on and keep hitting all the good spots. Sunset Trees were beautiful! Then it was on to Empire, where we skied Lady Morgan Bowl and X-Files too. My kids were getting hungry but the skiing was so good I told them to hang in for one more run OR go in and find us a table because I was taking one more run. They chose to find a table, but somehow I still made it in time to help them after taking my extra run. Hmmmm…looks like they decided to play in the snow instead. After lunch we went into Ontario Bowl, even at 2:30 p.m. the powder was still to be had!

I realize my kids are lucky to ski Deer Valley and after our rough morning the first run always takes away the worries! As you can see from these photos, Lucas was very happy and Stefan was skiing in snow as tall as him and almost as tall as me!!!!

See you on the slopes