Crazy Raven to Madison Avenue

After the Bear Lair runs, we checked out Crazy Raven/Madison Avenue.  Since it had been snowing so hard all day, it was deeper now than at the start of the day.  Crazy Raven is one of my favorite runs on this side of Big Sky.  For some reason it reminds me of Wilderness or MacKenzie at my childhood stomping grounds on Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks.

Colin was attacking the runs ahead of me now.  It was amazing to watch him drop over a steep section and simply disappear in a cloud of white and then re-emerge below whooping and hollering.  Pure ecstasy for all...

Kevin on Madison Avenue

You can see how hard it was snowing in this next photo.  The large trees on Elk Park Meadows are barely visible and Tom and I are nearly obscured by snowflakes in the sky.

Tom Gets His Fair Share on Madison Avenue

Colin Enjoying the Soft Bumps

By this time it was nearly 4pm and we had to head back to the top of Andesite for one last run to the base.  How I wished that this was "Sunset Sunday" with the lifts open until 5 pm! (We skied yesterday until 5pm on "Sunset Saturday")

On our last run, Tom opted for the powdery Tippy's and Colin and I skied the Blackfoot glade. (Blue Room had been closed already.)  It was a fine run but a bit disappointing compared to the Thunderwolf insanity.

All in all this was the best day of resort skiing I can recall and I've had quite a few great ones.  I will remember it for a long, long time.  Much of the day, I thought about my brothers, Dave and Jim, and my ski buddies Mark and Jeff, wishing that they all could have been here with me to experience this.

We'll just have to try to get another day like this next year...