Day 5: No Friends on a Powder Day

When we woke up we were gearing up for a very exciting day of skiing the 15 inches of freshies that had fallen that night. Matt and Triina decided that it was best to skip making breakfast in the shed (the day prior breakfast had taken 4 hours to make. . . . .) and get burritos on the hill so that we could make first chair.

Note: Triina and Matt live in a shed. With no plumbing. Here are pictures:

Clearly I did not stay in the shed (three of us in a twin bed would have been tight). I couch surfed in the condo next to the shed that was occupied by some of the their new friends Rachel and John, a brother and sister duo. The couch was the perfect Anne size and I slept super good, which is key to stayin’ healthy.

I was super excited to show Triina all my favorite runs and why I loved the Taos ski valley so much. I had been the push behind her and Matt coming to work at Taos in the first place. I talked that place up so much. However, this was not an ordinary day, it was a power day. And everybody knows, There are No Friends on a Powder Day. Its each man for themselves to get their own first tracks.

Because of that; Triina, Matt, and I rode for a total of 3 runs together the entire day. The first run we did the big front facing run under the lift called Al’s Run. Its bumps and powder all the way down. Its incredibly steep at parts which is why we had to do it immediately. Al’s Run is good for a total of 3 hours max even after freshies because it gets skied out so fast. We bumped it out top to bottom and then I had to go in to get some powder skis. The K2 Lotta Loves were not cutting it. 15 inches requires a fatty.

I picked up a sweet little ski called the Nordica Nemisis and headed back out. I did a few runs by myself to test them out, and then I eventually found Triina and Matt. Triina had to go get a face mask so it ended up being Matt and I for the rest of the morning.

We skied the front side all morning till the extreme cold forced us to get some hot drinks and chocolate turtles before going back out to discover that they had just opened up the backside of the mountain. Fresh tracks everywhere.

Triina never found us till after we had warmed up, but had been at the right place at the right time and had been one of the very first people to hit up backside. True to powder day matra, she took the freshies over finding us. Matt and I couldn’t blame her. We both confessed we would have done the same.

She was on her way in when we found her. Completely freezing, but willing to do 2 more runs with us to show where the good snow was. After that it was just me, Matt, and the new runs that they opened where we then got our first tracks in. we kept saying, “one more run, one more run” until we too finally also succumbed to the cold and hunger (no time for food on a pow-pow day). We went in to meet a happily powder fulfilled, yet still cold Triina for lunch/dinner at Tim’s Stray Dog Cantina.

We stuffed ourselves with green-chili burgers and then headed home to watch the torch light parade and fireworks before settling in a solid and well earned nap.

At 10 we decided it was time to go back out. The party seemed to be all around at multiple places, but we took a chance and went back to the Stray Dog. This turned out to be a fantastic idea.

No entry fee, a pumping DJ, and best of all: 2FDP. (FYI: 2FDP = 2^nd Floor Dance Party) We had the funnest time, just crazy dancing with the ski bum locals (Triina and Matt’s fellow co-workers). We also met up with the Condo kids that I was staying with, so it was just a big group of friends celebrating. All I could think of was how lucky I was to be celebrating in a ski town and how lucky I was to have had such a perfect day!

2011 was starting off amazingly. I could already tell it was going to be a good year ;)