I figured the drive to Tacoma was going to be a piece of cake, and the roads from there to the mountain might be sketchy--thanks to some crazy weather it was very much the other way around. Regardless, I made it to Fife to meet my carpool Chuck (Bandit) despite a good 5" of snow and slippery roads just after the Narrows bridge!! At the mountain I ran into Craig (Team Wally) by the bottom of Chinook and we immediately took off for Northback. The rest of the day consisted of back-to-back laps with various other people in the farthest corners of Northback to collect as many freshies as possible, and finished up with a sweet run down some chutes below the Throne. The weather turned out to be beautiful; blue sky and incredibly cold, which did wonders for the snow but made temperature regulation kind of a challenge with the warming up of hiking and skiing followed by cooling off sitting on a bus and freezing on lifts to get back up...but oh, the snow!!! So light it could really be called powder, and it was enjoyable without super fat skis even in chopped-up form. Nothing more to say, except that I am EXTREMELY jealous of those who are headed up there tomorrow to take advantage of Southback's opening. Enjoy all that good snow while you can, and maybe send some down to me in Tahoe when I'm back at school!
