Days like today reinvigorate me with that overwhelming feeling of living to the fullest. My body unleashed testosterone and aggressiveness that combined and fueled a kind of visceral mania. My eyes opened wide, I stumbled out of the shadowed state of depression, and felt a lost but not forgotten passion. Where has it been? I have it now but I know it can be fleeting. So I need to use it while I have it, internalize it, and make it mine again.

The bright light of spring split the clouds in the early afternoon. The metaphor was not lost on me as I slowly skied the traverse, looking around, breathing deep, feeling human again. Or at least feeling like myself again. Well, except for the poor physical conditioning.

I soon found myself in an elevator shaft, in the trees on upper Madonna Mountain. A pair of trees towered over partially buried deadfall and an ice patch. I could make the turn but I had a hunch that there was either glare ice or rock under the snow where I planned to turn. There wasn’t much room for speed control below the trees, so it was to be a straight line into an eight foot wide 35 degree elevator shaft. I looked to my left and other tracks had opted for discretion leaving the line untracked with two inches of fresh covering who knows what beneath. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have even been thinking about the calculation, I’d already be at the bottom. I wasn’t going to back off it, I was out to recapture something that I lost. And what a place to do it.

My streak of great days at Smuggs continues. Madonna and Sterling continue to impress me as I find new and interesting lines to explore. Clearly visible and imposing lines tease you while riding the lifts. Finding the entrances is easy enough but knowing if conditions are sufficient is often a challenge. Smuggs has more steep and narrow elevator shaft style trees than any other mountain I’ve skied. This is my favorite type of skiing: steep and narrow requiring good technical turns and chutzpah.

Despite my trepidation about the snow conditions, the mountain skied exceptionally well. Smuggs got a few inches of snow along with some sleet and rain. But the non-frozen precipitation seemed to be confined to the lower mountain. I got things started with a run down F.I.S. which featured soft pillows of cream cheese interspersed with ice patches. By linking turns on the pillows, this non-bumped run was absolutely stellar. Next I dropped into Doc’s which reinforced looking for the untracked inch or two of snow or turning on the pillows and avoiding the ice. I was delighted by how good the conditions were but it was only going to get better.

Since the untracked snow was skiing the best, I decided that the woods would be the best option. With very light traffic (probably no more than 300 skiers tops all day), there were likely to be fresh lines abound. So I went exploring and found some exceptional snow. My line choices seemed a bit questionable at first for mid-April. But the steep lines were still in good form with minimal ridiculousness and route finding. It wasn’t quite peel away and it wasn’t quite cream cheese, but there was absolutely delightful snow in the woods.

Over on Sterling, I found some exceptional untracked tree lines with true peel away cream cheese. I was thinking that I absolutely needed to repeat those trees when I popped out onto an absolutely sensational Smugglers Alley. The Alley was in superb form due to the sun coming out and baking the trail. In combination with Treasure Run, this pair made for excellent high speed wide turns on hero snow. A second lap was a no brainer before returning to Madonna.

My legs were showing signs of fatigue and I needed to keep something in the tank for a return trip on Sunday. But it was too good to leave yet. I dropped into a spicy Upper F.I.S. and dropped into the trees for a replay from earlier. I was going to repeat this run but I noticed a skier dropping into Liftline. Perhaps a poacher? Nay. The rope was dropped and Upper Liftline had the green light down to the steep mid-Liftline cliff. I took two laps down Upper Liftline which really got the blood pumping and the teeth showing. I dropped into the Lower Black Hole trees after my second Liftline run where I found an astoundingly good untracked narrow chute, a fantastic way to end the day.

Today, Smuggs convinced me of something that I have known deep down for a while now but didn’t want to admit. And I think it is probably going to change something. What that is, you’ll have to wait until after my 2012-2013 ski season is over to find out. 🙂