The board, the powder, and the breeze.

My prediction concerning the snow fall last weekend came true (see the last line of this post.) Box 1663 was nailed with 5-6 inches; the Sangre de Cristo mountain ranges had 8 inches by daybreak Friday morning. This meant...

1. The roads were a mess. They don't salt in this area, which meant snow was compressed to ice.
2. The lab shut down for the day. It was my day off anyway, but now everyone gets a free one. Adult snow days are way better than kid snow days (if you use them right.)
3. Santa Fe ski area was pure powder, making my second time snowboarding an absolute dream.

After one trip, I made the full commitment and bought boots, bindings, and a board. After a bad experience with rental equipment, my Flow bindings -- featuring a drop-down highback for step-in connections in any boots -- performed perfectly. I love my board so far (Gnu Carbon High Beam MTX Wide), but the conditions were vastly different from my first outing making it hard to compare the performance of this board to the rental I had last time.

I spent a lot of time on the beginner hill, but was linking turns and gliding -- not falling -- off the lift by lunch. I did a few runs on the regular hill (~1000' vertical) before my body gave up, which was just enough to get over my fears. It was a great time and I can't wait to go again.