Weekday Warriors
By Michael Cornelius
We started our 12 hour trip at 7:00am; the usual time for a one day assult on Snowbowl Ski Resort (The Bowl to the locals). The forecast was promising; a chance of snow with light winds. We never saw the mountain as we drove up. It remained shrouded in gently swirling clouds. We parked just a few paces from the end of the run, copped our tickets and strolled to the lift.
Real fun is waiting for you any day. Screw the weekend; the crowds, the traffic, the lines. Take it to the weekday.
As the chair snatched us up for our first ride I couldn't help but say "This sure beats working". Scott had to agree. The runs were gently dusted with 2 inches of powder the night before on top of 17 inches of snow in the past few days. The snow conditions were excellent. Even with the weekend just 2 days before there were still pockets of light dry powder left untracked here and there for us to seek and destroy. The sky intermitently spit snow and the sun poked out from behind the clouds every once in a while. It was just enough sun to knock the chill out of the calm air.
We were a bit rusty at first as we had not spent much time on a mountain in the past few years but we soon warmed up and found a groove. Snowbowl on the weekends is a nightmare if the snow is good. The lines can be 45 minutes long. On a weekday it's glorious solitude. One look at the picture above will give you an idea of just how empty it was. The trees were frosted white from the previous storm adding to the winter wonderland effect. As the day wound down the snow picked up until some serious accumulation was going on. We took unhurried laps until our legs surrendered at about 3:00.
After a stop at the Beaver Street Brewery for some excellent chiken chilli we headed back down the hill. It's funny that no matter how fast or slow I go between Flagstaff and Phoenix it's always exactly a two hour drive. So we were home at 7:00, completing the 12 hour trip.