Today was probably the most amazing x country ski day I've had. Blue sky, 13 inches of new powder, and temperatures between 45 and 52. I was skiing in my Sugoi sub zeros, a base layer, and a fall cycling jersey. The jacket was off in 20 minutes, the headband in 5, and the gloves came off after 30 minutes. It's the first time in 20 years I've skied without gloves. Could have been wearing a short sleeved shirt and a vest.
We did the hard part first, skied up the Back Forty to the first "Zig Zag," where we entered the Open Slope at a much steeper point than last week. Lots of people skiing down. For your edification, the Open Slope would probably qualify as a blue trail at an alpine ski center. I've skied it from the highest point of the "blue" designation, but it goes up higher, into black territory. I will probably never do any black trail at Windblown, as they all are steep mountains, although I have skied down a few black trails in other places, and climbed up many. I let the experts descend ahead of me, got some courage from some young skiers who told me I could "just walk down," (are they kidding?) and went off. No falling, not so elegant looking descent in a very dug in snowplow. DH fell again this week, and this time he listened to me as I could see what he is doing wrong.