My powder hound buddy Brian and I skinned all around Whitegrass that day, under blue skies and super duper fluffy powder. It was the kind that you could pick up with your hands and then blow it away like pixy dust, yea baby, real deal West Virginia champagne powder!
Brian was super stoked after skinning up just a few hundred yards!
The higher we went, the deeper it got, particularly in the meadows:
The temperature dropped fast when the snow came and there was an splendid effect on all the trees as the individual snow crystals stuck to them, it does get any more winterlandish than this:
Our first long run down was so magnificent we just had to skin back up for another go, on the way back up, we paused and look around to a clear view across Canaan Valley in all its splendor:
I'm not gonna lie, the number of times the snow was this good in my life I can count on one hand and it was tough to handle it! It was so darn easy to get lost in the bliss and forget what you're doing, wipe out and eat some snow:
Minus the sporadic cloud cover, we had some great views from atop Bald Knob:
The last long tour of the day took us from Bald Knob to Weiss Knob via the pipeline trail. We were the first to traverse the route and enjoy it to the fullness!
We were all smiles all day, I don 't know about Brian, but my teeth ached from too much exposure to the cold.
All in all one could not have asked for better conditions. Atop Weiss Knobb we found a mellow log and took lunch out in the woods; ate sandwiches, had a cold beverage, smoked mini stogies and wallowed in the bliss. I think bringing PBR on extended ski tours is a new tradition for me, and smoking a lil cigar during the breidl jausen just about put me past the tipping point of contentment. We estimated the snow pack up there at 4400 feet to be between 5 and 6 feet, truly remarkable! Now I'm proud to say my powder palette has been sufficiently broadened by a superb secret stash found only in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.
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