diminishing returns

It was bound to happen: Monday was not as good as the rest of the long holiday weekend.  Although it wasn't that much colder, it clouded up entirely and the light got flat.  When we did our first runs on Collins, the clouds had settled right down around 10,100 feet, so visibility was completely nil for a while.  After two or three runs, however, the breeze picked up and moved the clouds off.  We moved to Sugarloaf and then Supreme (of course).  We tried a run in Catherine's Area but the snow had stiffened up a bit (and, truth be told, my legs were fatigued) and I was really struggling.  After that, we pretty much stuck to the groomers.  The snow was firm and fast but not icy - except Challenger looked terribly scratchy and skied off.  We relearned these things about skiing groomers: it's tough to stay warm when you're not hiking and/or working hard; and you can get a lot more runs in when you're just flying down the trails.  (Truth again: H was flying, I was just going my speed.)  We finally got tired of groomers around 2:30 p.m. and headed home.

Given the dearth of new snow, getting two out of three decent ski days was better than expected.  The forecast is looking pretty dire, though: we're stuck under a ridge of high pressure for a while.  It's time to get down and do a snow dance for sure.