New Years Day is always a great day to ski. It’s not always the easiest as we inevitably shake off the slight fogginess from the previous evening’s celebrations. Still, we were on the hill at 9.45am in calm, cold, partly cloudy conditions. Schweitzer was even more quiet than usual, as I suspect most people had more fogginess to shake off than us.
The day turned into a groomer-fest, as the -10C weather kept the more adventurous terrain somewhat firm on all but the north-facing runs. 10,ooom vertical by 3.20pm on Schweitzer’s steep, winch-cat groomed runs was as much frenetic fun as we could take after the night before, and we headed back to Sandpoint to catch up on some sleep before dinner.
Monday was a bluebird dream of a day. Groomers were perfect. Off-groomed softened in the sun and the addition of wind-blown pow created a smorgasbord of options, upon which we feasted like Miss Piggy in a Vegas buffet. The sun eventually tempted the locals up the mountain, but when 90 second lift lines seem long, you know you’re spoiled.
By mid-afternoon, our thoughts were turning back to the reality of driving home and work the next day. Even the sun seemed aware of our musing, and gave us a gentle push as it dropped behind the low clouds to the west for the final time around 2pm. That was enough, we decreed, and brought another fast, varied, superb Schweitzer ski weekend to an end. This place is really hard to beat sometimes.
Sunday 10,000m, Monday 8900m vertical
Season Totals: 21 days, 162,500m vert, 9 powder days
Pacific Northwest Ski blog (and a few other places!) 
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