The last day.

We realized as we drove up to Mission Ridge yesterday we've never skied on the last day of the season. This would be a first. After some debate at the ski area and a decent amount of new snow last week, they made the call to hold to their operations calendar and be open for the final weekend. Turns out, after months of holding onto the snowpack from early January, winter decided to show up.

 

K took H to the lodge and I started off with Squish. He rode the rope tow a few times before we went up the Chair 1. 'I love chair lifts!' he exclaimed to me on the way up.

He's good enough to get off the lift himself and then basically ski down the whole run back to the lodge by himself. What used to take maybe half an hour to get back down now takes about five.

K and I swapped and she headed up to ski while I sipped an espresso, H munched on Cheerios, and S chugged a hot chocolate. Also, kept an eye out for Mommy.

Since it's spring, we had all the weather. It dumped snow, then the sun came out, then dumped sleet, then sun again. All in a matter of maybe an hour.

For it being the last day of the season, it was surprisingly quiet. We had most of the lodge to ourselves and sat outside by the fire for awhile on an otherwise empty deck. I'd been keeping an eye on this week's forecast. Finally, the weather service put in an expected snow amount. Uhh, 11-17 inches for Monday!

An hour later, it was 12-18 inches. Heck, while we hung out we learned from a ski patroller K chatted with on a chair ride that they're going to open next Saturday and run a couple of chairs. The snow total for the week is forecast in the range of 18-29 inches. This is what we've been waiting for all winter!

So I guess we'll back for the last, last day on Saturday. This week I am definitely going to get up there and  ski tour in what is already a foot of new snow (as of noon Monday while I type this and the winter weather warning doesn't end until 11pm)…

Bring on a little more winter!