Staring into the Sun and Seeing Snow

02.25.2011

It’s midwinter break in Seattle, when many of us diehard ski-types acquiesce to exit winter for a week to appease our significant others by trekking off to sunnier climes. I know Western Washington weather can be tough; I fly land in the low cloud ceiling often enough to understand the difference between sun above the clouds and desultory grey days below.

Heading to Sayulita (where I was supposed to take my family before a little SNAFU with my kid’s passports) or to Santa Barbara (not a bad place to end up, actually) maintains a harmonious family life. One week surfside in exchange for four months of 7am weekend drives to Crystal. This makes sense, right?
Sure it does, unless midwinter break happens to fall smack in the middle of the best snow conditions of the year thus far, when the Crystal Mountain Powder Report has pinged me each morning with reports of fresh 8”, 5” and 9” over the past three respective mornings, the chime of my Mac’s “you’ve got mail” firing shots across my newly tan brow with much more volume than the Santa Barbara campanile.
And I admit, perpetual “best days of the year, if not the decade” tweets and Facebook updates make me hate social media. Now I know what it feels like to be crammed within a cubicle on any given Wednesday and read my posts about skiing in Green Valley with the bluebirds. I wouldn’t call it payback exactly, I’m sure there’s no intended malice, and I’m honestly glad that the friends I “left behind” are up to their knees in fluff.

And I do have the Pacific Ocean at my disposal, a vista that should conjure up enough serene thoughts to melt my ski-envy like a snowball tossed into the surf. Yet sadly, as I sit on the beach watching the surfers ride the break, I can’t help but look over my shoulder at Hopper Mountain, home to the endangered California condor and shining bright in the California sun beneath a fresh dusting of snow?
May the Powder Report chime ring loudly again in the morning.