Today is one of those days that makes it impossible NOT to count your blessings. The sun is shining, the trees are flocked in a soft blanket of pure white and the snow is like COLD SMOKE.

We’ve had 6 inches of fresh snow in the last 36 hours and more than two feet of new snow this week. (That’s on top of 50″ last week…)

While I always feel fortunate to work and play at Brundage Mountain, I met some out-of-town visitors this week who helped remind me of just how lucky we are. It was yesterday morning when the first light bulb went on. We had 2-3 inches of fresh powder on the ground when the lifts opened, and our upper parking lot wasn’t even half full. A visiting film crew was gearing up for the day as the clock ticked down to ‘first chair’. Puzzled, they asked me, “where is everyone?”.

“Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that,” I said.

We’re so accustomed to our light mid-week traffic that it’s easy to forget what an unusual blessing this is. These visitors, no strangers to ski areas large and small, simply couldn’t believe how simple it was to find untracked powder lines ALL DAY LONG.

That blessing carried over to today. It snowed all day yesterday, then temperatures took a nose dive overnight. With so little traffic, slopes were hardly tracked. This morning, we woke up to bluebird skies and knee-deep COLD SMOKE on the slopes.

Still plenty of untracked lines, even on slopes visible right from the chairlift, and snow quality even better than yesterday when the snow was ‘fresh’.

Even the groomed runs are sublime. The corduroy is unbelievably smooth and so cold it SQUEAKS when your skis zip over those perfectly laid lines.

These are the kind of conditions some people wait ALL SEASON to enjoy at other ski areas. And even then, they are conditions you can only find for the first couple hours after first chair (at those other areas), before the masses gobble up all that powdery goodness.

So when first time visitors come to Brundage, their awe and wonder can’t help but remind us to count our blessings and remember just how lucky we are.

– April