The South Face

On Sunday, I went up to Bogus again, this time with Derek and Sarah. The results: My best day on the snow, ever, bar none.

I was able to take everything I'd learned and mustered on my previous outing and apply it to some amazing powder. We had first tracks on Mary's Ridge, in deep soft powder, an experience like no other I've ever had. It was simply amazing, floating through this stuff up to my thigh in some areas, weaving through trees and down quick steep slopes that I never thought I'd be doing at this point, if ever.

I did all of Upper Paradise for the first time, and hit one of the sweetest chutes at the bottom of it that I've ever seen. And this time, I was able to nail most of my runs without falling half a dozen times on the way down. I fell, sure, but as often as not I was able to roll out of it to my feet and get going again. So cool.

At the end of the day, legs burning and face hurting from all the damned smiling, we hit the South Face on the way back to the front side. The South Face at Bogus is a steep rocky slope at the top of Shaffer Butte. After the first big slope, it levels off just a bit and bombs into the trees for a long windy run out to the bottom.

Epic.

The snow was perfect, the terrain somewhat untracked, and to be honest when I got to the top it scared the bejeezus out of me. But I pointed downward and went. I put a few decent if shaky turns together before overcooking a lefty and, in Derek's words, hitting that "downward stabbing motion." My ski bit, tip first, and propelled me upward. As my body twisted with the launch, my left ski popped free of my boot (sparing both ankle and knee) and took a dive into the deep powder as me and the other ski did a full cartwheel, plowing another 15 feet down the slope. I unburied myself, stood up, and then had to find the ski.

About 10 minutes of crawling up the steep slope and digging in the powder, I hit solid material and dug out the ski. It was fine so I popped it on and headed down to join Derek and Sarah where they waited for me, about 100m below, no doubt enjoying the show immensely.

From there it was a blast into the trees and down a few drops and out to the main lift area.

An amazing day, unlike any other snow experience I've had.