Best ski day EVER !

[BS Slarver]

In the spirit of the best quotes of the season it's time to share your BEST ski day ever story.... or at least 1 of your top 5.
After some ski banter PMs with @Muleski I was reminded of this one, a top 5 anyway.

My god parents now in their 80s and still big time skiers invited us to Big Sky on numerous occasions. Being self employed and always extremely busy we declined and declined yet again.
On the third invite I'm told " OK !, This is the third and final offer "

They picked us up at Bozeman, and after finding our skis didn't arrive we made the trek to the mountain. By the time we arrived at the "cabin " it was dark and snowing hard, I could tell we are at least on mountain but not certain of our exact location.
For some reason I woke up around three am and noticed at least a foot and still snowing at a good clip. I can measure the depth because the baggage courier is stuck in the driveway, all the ski bags are safely at the door !

In the morning we awoke to 12 -18 of fresh Montana goodness and the avalanche canons going off one after another in the distance.
My son, already an accomplished racer and maybe 12 at the time is coming out of his skin, pacing around the cabin.

"when are we GOING ! when, when ....... let's GO ! "

80 year old Dave is sitting at the breakfast table calmly sipping his coffee, boots on and his one piece down around his waist. He is eyeing the grooming report one last time and checks his watch. As if right on schedule the piston bully comes out of the early morning snow and fog and is heading right towards the cabin !
At the last second it turns, the tiller clips the corner of the deck and lays down a perfect blanket of corduroy in front of us.

Dave zipped up his one piece and calmly says to my son ......
" Well, it looks like your up ! " Best day EVER !

 

[Posaune]

The Saturday after MLK Day, 2002. Mt. Baker. It had been quite cold and snowing hard all week, over a foot a day. I was riding a school bus with a load of kids. There were cars off the road all over the place, there was even a snow plow in the ditch! By the time I got there there was about 7 feet of unconsolidated super light powder (yes, powder, not Cascade concrete by any stretch of the imagination). The storm from the night before had left a lot of new on top of all of the stuff from the week before, but it was so perfect that you really couldn't tell when the snow had come down. Many people were intimidated by the drive, and if they made it all the way up, by the depth of the snow (as they should have been) and there were few people on the hill for a Saturday. It was face shots all day. The snow never packed out. It looked like a developing mogul field, but the stuff was as deep and light as it had been when it was virgin so when I hit a "bump" it blew into my face. I yo-yo'd for full vertical deep powder runs all day. It's been 15+ years since then, but I glow whenever I think about it.

 

[Philpug]

Paging @dean_spirito who coined the "Best Day Ever" line during many of our days in Colorado thais past season. He was the inspiration for emoji...

 

[BS Slarver]

Forgot that emoji Phil .... pre coffee post !

@Posaune .... I now dub you insane Posaune.
First thought on the school bus trip was blizzaks or Hakka's ?

 

[crgildart]

Graduated high school in Minnesota and moved down to Norman, OK for college. By late October I was really Jonesing for some skiing so I reached out to a travel agent (pre internet days) to see what the costs and logistics of a cheap trip to Colorado would be. Decided I had enough to go for it and booked a room in Golden (or Georgetown, honestly don'r remember which) the weekend before Thanksgiving. Got there Thursday night and woke up Friday morning to about 6" of snow on my car.. it was PUKING.. Headed up the pass to Breckenridge bright and early arriving before the place opened,,, I remember huffing and puffing up the stair sets between the parking lots on the way to the ticket window. Snow was a lot deeper up there. Bought a 3 day ticket, clicked in, and headed all the way up... peak 8 was the highest back then IIRC. Skied untracked in Horseshoe Bowl all day Friday. That was my first rocky mountain skiing experience. Had to stop and buy chains at the checkpoint before the pass on the way back to the motel. I had never seen that kind of wreckage and carnage, all the wrecked cars all over both sides of the interstate. Rinse and repeat for Saturday. Sunday I think I decided to bail and head home.. Good move, it was all ICE across the plains and took forever to drive... really fortunate that I had been forced to purchase those chains.

 

[Philpug]

Required answer:
Our "pop up" wedding day at Northstar, we were surrounded by almost 100 of our closest ski buddies...A great powder day at Northstar.

Alternate answer:
it was a Thursday, I remember it like it was a Thursday. Our first year out here and one of the Epic storms where it (felt like) it was snowing 4-6" an hour. We ran into @cbk who was taking a lesson from Mike Hafer in the AM and we asked Mike if he wanted to blow off the lesson and ski with us, he chose to stay with Carl and honor the commitment. @Tricia and I skied off and skied the Martis Camp Glades for the rest of the day, run after run since it was free refills we just skied the same like over and over. Stuff that were dropping off of in the morning, we were rolling off of in the afternoon. I always reference this day when someone says they need a huge powder ski, I was on the Bonafide and it was amazing.

Runner ups:

Bridger Bowl, the last day after the Epicski Academy that was happening at Big Sky. It was @Tricia, @Brian Shon and myself. We got to the mountain with the plan that we would leave around lunch time. Joan had suggested since it was a powder day to avoid the Sluschmanns lift and to ski the lookers right side of the mountain and sure enough it was empty and we had the whole section to ourselves. What started off as a plan to leave by lunch turned into a rush to get the last chair.

Steamboat Powdercats trip that I earned in a K2 Sales contest when I was still back in Pa. the trip was hosted by Mike Powell of the @PowellMovement when he was still with K2. The skiing was magnificent but the day was bittersweet because we found out that Shane McConkey, one of Mike's best friends had passed.

Three of the four were with @Tricia.

 

[BS Slarver]

^^^^ Awesome days, refill Phil

 

[Tricia]

Forgot that emoji Phil .... pre coffee post !

I fixed it for you!

Best Day EVER for me.....
The day that @Philpug talked about with @Brian Shon at Bridger Bowl. I recall Nolo giving us some tips on where to go on a powder day at Bridger, mostly because most of the skiers will flood Slushmans ....hint- avoid that.
Here are some pics of that day.

Some of the best days since then have included powder days, but none are better than the days you're having with friends, laughing, skiing, eating, laughing, and (did I mention) skiing.

 

[crgildart]

Some of the best days since then have included powder days, but none are better than the days you're having with friends, laughing, skiing, eating, laughing, and (did I mention) skiing.

Yes, hands down the best days I've had "watching" were seeing my kids learn to turn and control their speed so that we could finally start skiing together. Also a shout out to the gatherings, scout trips, etc when we flash mob one trail after another with huge smiles!

 

[luliski]

Heavenly 2016. Got stranded in SLT after hitting a pothole on Pioneer Trail and needing to replace all four tires. Skied four days during a cold storm. Some of the best snow I've ever skied in Tahoe. There's a big smile under that face mask!

 

[Posaune]

First thought on the school bus trip was blizzaks or Hakka's ?

I was sitting in the front talking to the bus driver on the way up the hill while the kids do what they do on a school bus on a Saturday. He said buses are the best snow vehicles going. It had those automatic chains that deploy at the punch of a button. I couldn't argue with him. The snow plow in the ditch had chains on though, so I wasn't totally convinced, though we got there with no problem.

A year ago or so there was an article in the local fish wrapper about a guy who was retiring from working for the DOT on the Mt. Baker Highway. He related how he was plowing one day in a huge wind and snow storm and the wind blew up so much snow that the visibility went to zero. He had to put his plow into the ditch, since right on the other side of the road was a bank that dropped into the Nooksack River and he couldn't see a thing. In retrospect that is exactly what it looked like on my "day." That must have been it.

 

[Philpug]

Some of the best days since then have included powder days, but none are better than the days you're having with friends, laughing, skiing, eating, laughing, and (did I mention) skiing.

What about the Vail day that the snow was so brutal, we just sat at mid mountain drinking Tequila Sunrises. That day was a

 

[Dwight]

Visited Michigan Tech and skied Mont Ripley for first time in 2012, with son. Skied on Sunday, courtesy of Ski Patrol passes. Monday visited the campus and it dumped 6-8" of fresh snow. With the visit came a few 24hr pass for all MTU events. They own the hill, so make another reservation at hotel and hit the hill again. The pro shop offers free 1hr demos. Tried some Salomon Rockettes, first powder ski ever tried. Took some runs down their bowls, light turned in head. Oh this is why people like these skis. Fun night of skiing with the kid.

Now with two kids in the U.P. More great days/nights of skiing are ahead.

 

[coskigirl]

What about the Vail day that the snow was so brutal, we just sat at mid mountain drinking Tequila Sunrises. That day was a

I think that was the day this photo was taken.

There was also the day that 15 of us skied Vail in a way that will never be repeated. I still can't figure out how we did it so smoothly!

Oh, and there was the mac and cheese corn dog pizza day.

And Irwin Cat Skiing for @SkiNurse 50th.

There are too many good ones to post them all!

 

[SkiNurse]

As far as I'm concerned, every day I get to click into my binding and ski is the!!!

 

[SBrown]

I think that was the day this photo was taken.
View attachment 31216

I think the day they are talking about was not that day. I think you and I were guiding a group that day? I left early (already had planned to do so), but nothing ever softened. It was full-on refreeze and clouds, but no snow. Even the groomers were brutal.

 

[Blue Streak]

As far as I'm concerned, every day I get to click into my binding and ski is the!!!

I feel EXACTLY the same way!

 

[coskigirl]

I think the day they are talking about was not that day. I think you and I were guiding a group that day? I left early (already had planned to do so), but nothing ever softened. It was full-on refreeze and clouds, but no snow. Even the groomers were brutal.

It's funny, the way I remember it was that the morning was brutal. You and I had different groups but we were communicating and the story was that it was horrible everywhere. Then they shut down the lifts due to thunder and it proceeded to dump while we sat at Mid-Vail. We came out to the fresh shown in that picture taken right under Northwoods lift. But, you may be right that there is another day that Phil is talking about. We sure are lucky to have had so many good days that we can't keep them straight!

 

[SBrown]

It's funny, the way I remember it was that the morning was brutal. You and I had different groups but we were communicating and the story was that it was horrible everywhere. Then they shut down the lifts due to thunder and it proceeded to dump while we sat at Mid-Vail. We came out to the fresh shown in that picture taken right under Northwoods lift. But, you may be right that there is another day that Phil is talking about. We sure are lucky to have had so many good days that we can't keep them straight!

Yes, that was the very first day: it was brutal in the morning, there was thunder snow and a lightning hold, then we all came out and skied an amazing afternoon. The Tequila Sunrise day was later in the week. It was ... rough.

 

[TonyC]

There are the two that stand above the rest.
April 9, 1999 at Mammoth: http://bestsnow.net/19990409mmthtc.HTML
March 25, 2007 with Chugach Powder Guides: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=3034

For lift service, then come these two:
March 21, 1991 at Mt. Baldy: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=12371

February 8, 2008 at Castle Mt.: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=6384

The latter trip also featured some of the best powder I have ever skied at Chatter Creek Snowcat:
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=6342

February 3, 2008 was the best day, conveniently captured by their house photographer, my son Adam here:
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=6356:

For both Alaska and Chatter Creek I returned in later seasons and was not so lucky. Since 2010 I've settled for annual trips to at Mustang Snowcat for a more consistent experience.

My best non-powder day was probably February 16, 2002 at Snowbird: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=4583
If you ever get to a winter Olympics, set aside some time for skiing. The Olympic events scare away the usual ski vacationers so the ski areas can be empty.

The Tequila Sunrise day was later in the week. It was ... rough.

I remember that day. I ran into vailsnopro's "take no prisoners group" at the top of Blue Sky and kept up for about 4 hours. It was definitely "snow that was good for you" but not at a level that we couldn't enjoy it. I'm sure having an insider guide helped but it still gave me a feeling of accomplishment to ski decently under less than ideal conditions.