Today turned out to be a bit of a surprise, thanks to Mountain Host Debbie and her husband Bill, who led us to tree line after tree line for nearly the entire day. While it's been the better part of a week since the last storm, we certainly found freshies -- witness this picture of my son below Portugese Gap: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3563.jpg" ALT="Michael in Portugese Gap"> <BR> <BR>Groomers were perfect, although a bit busy in places, such as the top of Home Run here: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3564.jpg" ALT="top of Home Run"> <BR> <BR>While the day started off with several inches of fluffy new snow, the sun eventually broke free of the cloud deck and illuminated things beautifully, like this shot of the main base area: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3565.jpg" ALT="main base area"> <BR> <BR>There's tons of cover, although a thick crust exists on any exposure with a southerly element. Pinecone Ridge was closed by the patrol for that very reason -- and probably because of the baked snow's potential to slide, too. No worries, though, for there's plenty of north-facing stuff out there. <BR> <BR>We wrapped up the day by skiing right back into town: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3566.jpg" ALT="skiing into town">