Early season, gnarly runs

A few days ago, always as curious as I tend to be, I ventured into “Son of Rattler” a passage in the woods and into a creek bed that I have skied many times at Deer Valley. Even if this was the last day of Fall (Yeah, December 20, who's ever heard of “Fall skiing”?) the snow cover was thin and thinner yet in the woods as the surrounding trees were still hoarding tons of snow to themselves and not letting it down onto the ground.

At the opening clearing, on top of the run, all was good and smooth, but as soon as the forest canopy closed in, rocks, stumps and obstacle of all shapes, forms and origin reared their ugly heads, slowed me down, and made me loo twice where I was going. My take-away from that experience is that tree skiing should always be left for latter in the season.

Being precocious with that forms of skiing rarely yields good dividends!