I have had better individual runs and have skied deeper and better quality powder. I have skied knee deep blower powder with excellent base down narrow chutes and sweet glades. But I have never had a day featuring untracked on every run. Instant refills on the untracked due to heavy snow, blowing winds, and very little competition. Even though I have had better individual powder runs and better powder conditions, today is easily one of my best ski days due to untracked runs from open to close.
Boot to knee deep untracked all day with heavy snow filling in tracked lines within an hour or two. Essentially, untracked every single run from open to close. The snow is a very dense type of precipitation falling in small, tight, dense crystals. Definitely not fluffy but powder all the same. It made keeping tips up a challenge and spelled certain doom if tips got submarined. After much consideration, today tipped the scales, and I am officially in the market for something fatter than my current 89mm waist Dynastar Inspired Bigs.
Since Burke is very uncrowded even on a powder day and competition for trees shots is amazingly low, I spent the first hour ripping powder on the open slopes. Big Dipper, Warren’s Way, and Willoughby were all fantastic boot deep powder on top of a groomed surface. Open em’ up and let em’ fly. Ledges to Fox’s was excellent and then into the trees I went with Dixieland opening things up with more boot to knee deep with deeper drifts. The balls deep drifts were a pain though due to the dense consistency of the snow. Point em’ straight and steep!
The Jungle was awesome. Approaching what I later estimated was at least a 15 foot cliff, I wondered how the landing that I could not see looked and just how big the drop was. I didn’t wonder long. That was about twice as big as I have ever gone and I stuck the landing with style. More knee deep, a face shot, and my first trip into the powder room followed the huck in The Jungle.
How about Birches? How about knee deep? How about so deep I got stuck because it was only about 15-20 degrees on some knee deep sections with particularly deep snow. How about who even needs to go off the map when I am going knee deep untracked in an on the map glade at noon time! I found a particularly amazing tree shot that got a few repetitions featuring knee deep and amazing lines between some fine upstanding birch trees. Hiking in the Summer sure pays off in the Winter!
My pot of gold was an elevator shaft like run off the map that I have been eying for some time. Steep and Deep! I left it until 3 P.M. so it was a great way to end the day. Speaking of ending the day…. Willoughby, one of Burke’s most well known and frequently skied trails, for my final run skied just like my first. Boot deep untracked. I could not even tell other skiers had been on the upper section due to the amazing refilling of the tracked snow.