There are certain things I like to do every year, one of which is making it up skiing at my home mountain for opening day. This last Saturday, Crystal Mountain fired up it's chairlifts and people came to get the goods.

In comparison to 'opening days' in the past, their wasn't as much terrain open. But they did open Powder Bowl off of chair 6. That pretty much made the day, as my ski buddy Adam and I got 2-3 runs of boot deep powder. The rest of the day was pretty mellow cruising the groomers of the Forest Queen Express. Happy fun turns.

Crap I'm outta shape this year. Much more so then in years past. I have to start working out, doing pilates, yoga, and skiing as much as possible. I've found as I get further up in age, to avoid injury I need to be in good shape.

The other fun part of opening day is sharing it with like minded mountain folk. I saw some of the Crystal Mountain posse. We shared a couple runs with Scotty and Nancy. I saw a Charlie from K2 and Keith of Sturtevants. Shared a few stories with other people and made new friends on the chair.

The most common element of the day was smiles. Lots of smiling faces all around. Particularly in the morning with the blue sky. I didn't see much smiling once the winter storm rolled in. Hopefully the 17" they got that night is enough to get us through the high temps and massive amounts of rain the last two days. I'm scared to look at the web cam and see all the snow melted away.

Regardless, the 2007-2008 winter season has begun. Day one is in the bag, the first quad burn and soreness barely lingers. My muscle memory for my favorite activity is back. Just like riding a bike. There is no other place I'd rather be than skiing at Crystal. I have the most fun skiing there, for so many reasons...

So get your ski gear out, tune the skis, put the winter tires on, and I'll see you at Crystal.