More tracks

Yes, more snow. Winter is unusually wintry lately. I'm making the most of it. The woods are offering plenty of snow for a quick trip.

Fluff

Perfect beautiful snow, it's a rare thing. For the record, not all snow is created equal. Most of the snow that falls around here is wet, heavy and dense. It's the stuff that we get when it's just barely cold enough to turn from snain (aka wintry mix) to snow. Heavy snow still provides for winter sports, but it's barely tolerable. Every once in a while we get a good dump of cold dry snow that piles up so gently with a magical weightlessness. Even less often does it stay cold enough after the storm to preserve the fluffiness long enough for me to enjoy it.

This weekend about 6 inches of the good stuff fell, and it's still cold and fluffy today. I skied around in the woods at lunch today. There is a pocket of winding wooded trails near the office with plenty of routes for a short romp. It was perfect. There were a good number of tracks on the ground - boots, paws, snowshoes, etc. It didn't really matter because the persistent loftiness of this snow remained there for me. Additionally, last week's baked cruddy snow shielded me from the rocky rooted trails underneath. Gliding through the cloudy layer was flawless. It was sunny also. There aren't many bluebird powder days around here, but I certainly won't miss any of them.