2001, heavy January or February snowfall at Loveland Basin. I had just returned to the mountains after spending some time in Colorado Springs doing the IT thing.
Lift 9 was basically brand new and I caught a real early chair up on a bluebird day. It was a 12 or 14inch morning and I cut fresh all the way down Patrol Bowl. I felt like a dolphin cutting in and out, bouncing and flying.
Hit the headwall and dropped the 30ft straight into so.much.powder. Rode it out like a hero. Heard the cheers from the lift and man, that was the best feeling EVER. It was the best run of my life and I’ve had epic days at Vail, Breck and Copper also. Nothing like that first run that bluebird morning though.
edit: 2001 was an incredible year in the Colorado mountains. That was the year of the “St. Patty’s blizzard”. I lived in Lawson that winter (little wide spot on I-70) and that blizzard put literally 6ft of snow in my front yard. I’m 6ft tall and it was as tall as I was. I shoveled us out three times that night so we wouldn’t get trapped in the cabin with it’s opening-out front door and no porch roof to speak of. No one went skiing for days after that blizzard but we did get to ride snow machines up and down I-70. Made sure the neighbors were alright, dug out a volunteer firefighter’s truck in case he got a call, ate a lot of chili. Good times and the favorite memories of my life.
First time skiing in Japan. The snow was so good it actually moved me to tears. I had only dealt with Sierra Cement up until then.
Also, having a natural hot spring only a few minutes walk away from the base was incredible, and something I miss more every year I get older
Best ever is probably a group trip to Whistler many years ago. We got to our condo shortly ahead of a big snowstorm which closed the road behind us overnight. We awoke the next morning to a fresh layer of powder, and nearly had the whole mountain to ourselves. The only other skiers were people who had also beat the storm just ahead of us.
Best recently was night skiing with my kiddo back in January. It was a Sunday night so we nearly had the entire hill to ourselves. The sunset and alpenglow were phenomenal. And multiple planets were out: Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter were all visible.
