This winter’s bleak season in the PNW has me dreaming of powder days past – from the deep days shared with many to the unsung quiet powder enjoyed on my own. While they come in types, there’s no question that scoring a midweek powder day beats fighting the weekend warrior crowds. Simple math – if you, being an Office Fugitive, have the freedom to sneak out midweek, it’s that much easier to go when the skiing’s good. But if you’re like me, the midweek day also comes with limitations. Make sure deadlines are all tracking. Are there any meetings lined up? Shift the home schedule for drop-offs and pick-ups.

And even when it all aligns, it’s often still a roll of the dice. Midweek powder skiing usually comes with a time limit, that critical 8:30-11 window to score a couple good resort hours and get back in time to work the rest of the day and late into the night. Which may be easy at big resorts or mountain towns, but at my favorite little funky home resort, that window is far from a sure thing.

Getting a mountain open is no easy task on a big snow day, that’s for sure. Swirling winds move snow through terrain that’s challenging to move through, much less control with any efficiency. I’m supremely grateful for the hard work that patrol and mountain ops puts in, but you can see a visible powder urgency in line on a delayed opening, the anxious stomping and stepping of those with office obligations and that hard stop at 11am, the relaxed chatter and slow movements of their friends, secretly hoping it doesn’t open until the desk crowd has to leave.

Some days the dice come up snake eyes, and the 11 o’clock stop hits before the upper mountain even opens, hopefully at least 1-2 lower runs before joining the Chair 2 line. Other times, the morning ends with one run off the top at 10:30, a tantalizing taste of what could have been, which often grows like a fish tale of epic powder proportions by the time you’re at the office.

But every now and then, the dice come back sixes. The mountain opens early, rolling the chairs at 8:15 when you’ve just showed up in line, no expectations greater than enjoying a coffee while the snowflakes pile up on your skis.  It’s rare, but it happens just often enough to keep you coming back each and every time.

It’s 65 and sunny in Seattle today, and it has me dreaming of one of those lucky dice rolls. The lifts ran, and though I only had enough battery to capture one run of the morning, I snagged a good one, following Chris down our first upper lap from Chair 2 through Breakover. We spun a couple more laps after this, and were on our way back at 11am, lucky dice in our back pockets, grins firmly planted on our faces.

April Powder at Alpental from Graham Gephart on Vimeo.