How about free lift tickets for kids 17 and under? That was the story today at Brundage Mountain, as we celebrated our first-ever “Gimme A Break” Day in honor of spring break. The snow gods must have approved, because they blessed us with six inches of fresh overnight snow, on top of a last-minute inch that came down late yesterday afternoon.

The slopes were smooth, soft, ego snow. But the best feeling of the day for me was actually meeting some of the young people who were here to enjoy the free event. More on that in a minute…but first…the powder shots:

I had been salivating over the prospect of those soft, creamy turns ever since I got up this morning to do the Snow Report and send out the day’s Powder Alerts. So when I rode up the BlueBird quad, I understood why so many people chose to bomb straight down the lift line…

It’s a tough line to resist, I admit. But I knew that not far away, there was a TRULY fresh powder field just waiting for ME. I convinced some buddies to let me ski down first so I could take some photos of their first run of the day.

I think after feeling the untracked, frosting-like snow under our feet, we knew the entire morning would be unbeatable.

We got enough snow to truly fill in the tracks that we had made the day before, as you can see from the shot of “The Face” below.

Even the lower mountain was in prime condition. This graceful skier made some pretty turns down the side of Jammer.

I love how these little ‘side stashes’ give parents the chance to enjoy some freshies while their kids ski safely down the adjacent groomed run.

We saw lots of kids on the mountain today and I was lucky enough to chat with some of them. These three kids came up from Donnelly specifically for the “Gimme A Break” event. They told me it was one of the only days they had been able to ski all season, and they were super excited about it.

These friendly teenagers are more frequent visitors to Brundage, who came all the way from Fruitland after getting this morning’s Powder Alert and a reminder that they could ski for free today.

Powder Alerts can be sent to your e-mail, or as a text message on your mobile phone and are a great way to make sure you never miss out on an amazing day like today!

— April