The last beautiful day

Well, I think I'm done. I think I've gone to the summit for the last time of my stay here. It was almost a perfect ending to my season of doing runs from there too. It all really started two days ago, just before midnight, when, out of nowhere, it started to snow at the village again - something that Panorama hadn't seen for some time.

It continued to dump throughout the morning and early afternoon of the next day (which was yesterday). Add to that the fact that it was in negative degrees for the first time in a while, and it was a recipe for some fresh tracks. The only problem with this situation was that I was both working yesterday and was meant to work today. Thankfully, a series of events occurred that led to me being able to get the day off, and oh, what a day it was.

I didn't actually go riding too much today. I did two runs... one was a practice run while I waited for Taynton Bowl to open up, and the other was through Taynton itself. I had committed to this being my last run at the bowl (unless there's another massive dump of snow before the end of the season), and I wanted to make sure I had some nice powder for it, so I decided not to do Devil's Drop (which I had wanted to do all season) because it was too tracked out, as per usual. Before I headed out, I had an excellent sandwich at the Summit Hut, my last meal at the top of Panorama, and took in some of the beautiful scenery for one last time. It was a shame that I didn't bring my camera along, as it was a beautiful day.

Then, it was time for my last hurrah. It's still a month away from the end of the season, but I knew that this would probably be the last time I would bother to take three lifts up to the top. I took my time to scout out the tracks, and eventually found some attractive powder in between Kinbasket and Whitetail, two of the last runs down the bowl. I didn't hesitate to strap in and there began my final descent, making some fresh tracks and surfing some nice fluffy snow. I was not only riding through good snow but was also riding really well. It was so good that I decided not to go up again, in the fear that I'd have a bad run and spoil my big finale.

It doesn't mean that I won't be going riding at all for the rest of the season, though. I will still do a lot of riding, but I'm probably going to restrict myself to the bottom half, cruising through groomers or getting better at the terrain park. And, of course, there's staff trips, and my end-of-season trip to Whistler. But it's goodbye to the summit of Panorama, at least for 2006/07... I know I'll be back here some day.