Today was definitely a study in contrasts on the slopes. We had 4″ of fresh snow overnight, but snow showers dropped off this morning, revealing a nice sturdy fog layer at the summit. One instinct on a foggy powder day is to find a wide open powder run to allow for wide, sweeping turns in case the flat light hides something bumpy. My favorite saying to describe this type of skiing is “Feel the Force, Don’t Force the Feel.”

A lot of times, that works. But when your assignment is to take photos, those open white spaces with a background of light gray are just not going to cut it. Instead, my devoted ski buddies and I headed for the trees.

You see, the contrast of the dark background gives the camera lens something to hone in on. Then when the skier comes through the shot, it can find the focus a lot faster.

While our motivation for hitting the trees this morning was purely professional, our reward for doing so became delightfully personal.

The 4″ of fresh snow had magically drifted and/or shifted in those glades, giving us a sweet, powdery treat, that once again, felt much deeper and more forgiving than you’d expect.

If you weren’t here to enjoy it, don’t despair. At this writing the forecast is calling for another 5″-10″ in the next 24 hours. As you can see in the ‘high-contrast’ image below…it’s just about to get here.

– April