Day 24 - Saturday Feb 2 - A Groundhog Day To Be Remembered

I know what you are thinking, "There is no groundhog day that could even compare with the Bill Murray movie, Groudhog Day," but I am here to say that this is about as close as anyone will ever come. Jer picked me up around eight this morning and we headed to the upper Solitude parking lot. I knew today was going to be super crowded in the backcountry because of the killer week we have had and the bluebird nature of today's forecast. I wanted to go somewhere a little less traveled and a little further in so we could find some sweet lines. We did. We decided to skin into West Monitor and see how we felt about it. During the approach we were being followed by three splitboarders. Now, I don't consider myself a prejudice man, but let's just say splitters aren't known for their speed on the uphill and during the transition. I was proved wrong. It was Don from Voile and a couple of his buddies, and they pushed us along the skin track all day long. We made it to the top of West Monitor and it looked pristine. Bob Athey had been up there yesterday so there were a few turns in the main bowl, but it is so big that it leaves plenty of room for more. Don, Matt, and Nick dropped in next to a sluff of snow the Bob set off yesterday with a cornice kick. Jer and I dropped in next to Bob's tracks for the first run. I can honestly say that between this and my next run they were the best two lines of my life. The snow was perfect. I had face shots on every turn. And my turns were totally dialed. I must take this time to apologize for the small nature of the videos. I know it is hard to see the skier, but you can just assume they are totally shredding it up. We skinned back up and took a second lap. This time we dropped in where the others had the first time and got another epic line in. After eating a quick cliff bar we then skinned back up to the ridge. At this point I was torn. I was having so much fun in West Monitor that I didn't want to leave it. I would have been perfectly happy just making another run or two in there. The others wanted to go ski McDonald's. I was okay with this because I do like to mix it up and this was going to be sweet terrain. I was not disappointed. There were a few lines already over here from some people hiking from the Canyons Resort. Jer totally hucked one and then torn up another great line. He was really looking good today. I followed and found myself totally in the Tao and making solid turns. This was a particularly long line and my quads were dead by the time I reached the bottom. We had to cut our own skintrack out of there since all those who had been before us had just continued on down to the lifts. About half of the way up I began to be really exhausted and I was having a hard time keeping up. I realized it was primarily because I had not been eating anything. So I had a frozen Cliff Bar from the bottom of my pack (I don't know how long it has been there) and continued on my way. When we finally made it all the way back on top of West Monitor I was having such a hard time not skiing it again. It looked so great. Jer was too wiped out to ski it, but I did my best to talk him into it. It didn't work. We would have had to skin all the way out again. We did get some great turns in on the South side during our exit. There were a few more turns over here from people who didn't want to quite go all the way up to West. They certainly made a mistake. The skiing was epic today. If this were the movie Groundhog Day I think this would be the last time I lived this day because it was just right. The only thing that could have made this better would have been a cameo guest appearance by Mr. Murray himself.