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Day 015: The Powder is in the Patience

Written by Z

All good things come to those who wait, right? If this season had yet to teach this lesson, today drove home the point. Most of us laid our heads to sleep last night in a state of utter giddiness. Six hours later, we awoke tangled in our bed sheets, having spent the night tossing and turning through dreams of powder and nightmares of rocks. The coffee had only just been brewed, and we were on the bus. Normally, we might spread out our gear, but today we wanted to have everything on and ready to rock, from goggles down to the pow playlist. It was 8:00 on the nose when the bus pulled in to the Village, but we didn’t lollygag; it was right to the gondola to get in line. By 8:04, we were looking pretty. At 8:45, blasts from the ski patrol were still sounding loudly above—a delayed opening. At 9:00, we intensely watched the every move of the gondola conductors, waiting to see the nod of the head, the lift of the sash, and the wave of the hand: “C’mon in.” At 10:00, we were still waiting patiently. No one had left the line yet, but now it stretched twenty fold from its original length. At 10:15, a group ahead sent a delegate to fetch a round of PBRs. By 10:20, they were drinking them. Ten minutes later, a mountain host announced that Casper had opened and some members of the back of the pack abandoned the gondola and made for Teewinot. Finally, sometime between now and then, the gondola began to load. And then we were off.