January 12, 2006: Last day skiing in Crested Butte.

On our last day of skiing in Crested Butte, we finally got to ski some powder. Not a lot of it by Western standards — just five inches, — but for us who ski on New England sn...I mean ice, it was more than enough. While shaped skis and a great teacher — Oleg — made me a semi-decent groomed slope skier in my first three seasons skiing, my experience with powder so far has been limited by one powder day last year at Smugglers', on which I endured many, many brutal falls. Upon reading many books and talking to many people, I was ready for the five inches of powder — not enough to make you fall the very instant you unweigh your inside ski, but plenty to drill the basics of powder skiing into my head: get some speed, keep legs close and distribute the weight more or less equally between the two feet. Surprise, it works! I am not yet a powder fanatic, but I guess I will get there after a few more sessions.

As far as pictures, I got a few during our farewell ride on the Silver Queen and the subsequent run down the International.

The Snow and the Butte:

A random view from the chairlift:

Getting closer to the Butte:

Another random view towards the end of the chairlift ride:

A view midway down the International:

Same view, a few seconds later:

Well, as sad as it is, we have to fly back home tomorrow. Yes, I checked (just in case) the real estate prices here, and no, my 2700 square foot townhouse in Nashua, New Hampshire is not as expensive as a one-bedroom here. I met a guy on the chairlift today who claimed to have moved here in the 90s to ski. He said he does ski repair in the winter and something similar — which escapes me at the moment — in the summer. I am still wondering if the web-advertised real estate prices are there just to support what seems to be the Butte-wide conspiracy to "not tell anybody about it"...