Do you ever have those days where everything seems to go right?

When you didn’t really expect to find anything unusual or have anything out-of-the-ordinary happen, but something unexpected pops into your world and just makes you smile in wonder?

That’s happened to me two days in a row now, and it’s such a treat I felt I had to share it. The sun had been teasing us for a couple hours by the time I got out on the mountain this afternoon. Breaking through the cloud cover…then ducking back under…all morning long.

By the time I reached the summit, the sky was deep blue, the view stretched out for miles, and it was clearly a beautiful day to be in the mountains.

But it wasn’t until after I skied this solitary line and paused to look back at it, that I realized exactly what had happened. Aside from the beauty of the day and my near-silent surroundings, it dawned on me that for two days in a row, the snow kept getting better! Not because of fresh powder, or even a few inches of new accumulation, but just because it was sitting there, morphing into an ever-more delicious treat. In my six years at Brundage Mountain, I’ve come to learn that this happens quite often.

In most climates, the fresh snow starts out good, but the clock is ticking. It quickly gets pounded by skiers or turns to glue in the afternoon sun.

This is the only place I’ve ever lived where the slopes can behave like a fine wine…getting even better with time.

Let me walk you through the progression.

Day 1 – Wednesday – 7″ of fresh snow

We were super stoked to get 7 inches of fresh snow between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon. Fresh lines were easy to find. (After all, it was mid-week at Brundage Mountain!) Not a big crowd, so you didn’t have to search hard. The snow was sweet creamy goodness (don’t get me wrong) BUT, it was NOT the light, fluffy champagne powder we often see. Temperatures were in the mid- to upper-20’s during most of that snowfall. If you look at the close up below, you can see how the snow was binding together as we charged through it. A little bit of a workout for the legs, and definitely best suited for those with solid off-trail technique.

Day 2 – Thursday – Barely 1″ of fresh snow

Thursday, we eeked out just an inch of fresh snow overnight at the summit, BUT, overnight temperatures dipped below 20 degrees for more than nine hours. That sucked the moisture right out of that snow, as you can see below.

The modest snowfall wasn’t enough to fill in the tracks from the day before, but still, it was mid-week at Brundage, so fresh lines could still be found without a lot of creative searching. This run was right off a groomed cat track, no sweat to find.

Day 3 – Friday – No new snow

Having been pleasantly surprised and impressed by Thursday’s conditions, I really wasn’t expecting to find anything to top it today.

Boy was I wrong! Yes, it took a little more time to reach the untracked lines, but believe me, I am no hard-core hiker. The nice, steep slope you see above was an easy traverse. While it had obviously been poached by a bunny rabbit (see the foreground above?), there was plenty of space to make turns without crossing another skier’s tracks.

This time around, the evening, overnight and morning temperatures stayed under 20 degrees for 20 hours. So even though it was a gorgeous, sunny day, the snow had officially experienced the “Brundage Effect”. After three full days, it’s still pretty easy to find blissfully soft, untracked powder.

What on earth could possibly be better than cruising on surprisingly soft snow through perfectly-flocked trees under bright blue skies?

I guess doing it day, after day, after day.

– April