The day started out sunny and bright, but the forecast did call for some mountain cloud. I had been afraid that the warm air from earlier in the week had wrecked the snow in Santa Fe but during the week they picked up about 8 to 10 inches of new snow.
Saturday I just had to check it out. I stopped just at the edge of the ragged cloud – about a thousand feet down from the summit where it was snowing. I didn’t really get the shot I wanted but at least I have a solitary reminder. In the middle of the photo you can see the sunny valley that is between Santa Fe and Espanola, some 5,000 feet below.
As the afternoon progressed the entire mountain became a snow magnet and we picked up another couple of inches in several hours. I actually broke some of my skiing rules – those that say skiing in the white cloud, on a white hill during a whiteout – is not the brightest thing – because you really can’t see the changes in the slope right in front of you.
But the challenging conditions kept me on the mountain until, sure enough, down I went in a pretty significant fall on this very run. It’s called parachute and it’s one of the groomed black diamond runs that really is quite steep. I knocked the wind out of myself and then decided that it was time to head on down to 10,000 Waves and the hot tub and sauna. I knew that my back was going to be sore for some time to come.
It turned out that it was only 10 minutes before quitting time anyway.
The hot tub was all that it could be.
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