Spending a week in the Cliff Lodge nestled deep up Little Cottonwood Canyon provides both detachment to reality and a bit of fantasy, especially when that week is during a classic Utah storm cycle. You forget your everyday life and the world outside the mouth of the canyon. You fantasize that skiing is always like this: fresh snow every night and face shots every morning.

In conjunction with the U.S. Freeskiing Nationals, the PTTP Tour rolled up the canyon on the eve of February's first day. Snowbird was already boasting a fat 100-inch base and storms were on the horizon. The first couple days of the comp were run in less than ideal visibility on Tower Three and Silverfox, but the snow was just starting to pile up. With good skiing conditions now a reality for the week, it was time to focus on the apres entertainment. Tuesday evening, Dave Swanwick, Adam Comey and the entire crew from Mountain Sports International pulled everyone out of the grey with a cocktail party on the tram loading deck complete with free beer, Red Bull and vodkas, and a delicious assortment of fancy pizzas, quesadillas, and other good eats. The vibe was nice but the party had just begun.

Throwing the doors to the red tramcar open, Swany herded half the party into it along with some disco balls, laser lights, speakers, and a DJ. After the red tram blasted off in a flash of spinning lights and dope beats, the scene was repeated a few minutes later and the blue tram lifted the rest of the group off the deck. The party was now officially high, suspended in the cold, dark Wasatch night. Stopped side by side above the nose of the Cirque and with speaker wire strung between them, the two cars went off. The live DJ on the red tram provided the beats in the blue tram and the party was nuts. Jamie Burge was dancing on the hatch ladder and everyone was raging-it was a scene quite opposite from the cattle packing we suffered in this very box earlier that day.

As the party let out the snow began to really hit and pile up on our parked trailer. By the end of the week it would be a buried lump in the parking lot that we'd have to dig out with snorkels. Wednesday and Thursday was epic deep as we sped around with Matt Collins, Chris Mineci and Sage Cattabriga-Alosa at both Snowbird and Alta. The face shots became more frequent and the landings kept getting deeper. The real gem came on Friday when the clouds broke and we awoke to bluebird skies on the day of the finals for the comp on North Baldy.

Gabe, Senior Powder Editor Derek Taylor, and I scored some early trams and "inspection" runs on Baldy, which had been closed all week. We had three perfectly deep and untracked powder runs down the side of the course in the trees, all before 9 a.m. As we watched POWDER contributor and former intern Ingrid Backstrom stomp a 25-footer at the bottom of the course I said to Gabe, "Gabe, you have snow all caked in your helmet, did you eat it?"

"Nope."

Other highlights of the week included more deep powder skiing, watching Sage and Jamie Pierre hit Chad's Gap up in Grizzly Gulch, and rippin' around Alta under the guide of 9-year-old Andrew Pollard. The party at the Tram Club Thursday night was a huge success as we raised $734 for the Adaptive Sports Program at Snowbird. After a luxurious week in the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird and one five star night at Alta's Rustler Lodge, we had added 45 inches to the Fresh-O-Meter. Gabe and I left for Montana with heavy hearts, knowing that we had absolutely nailed it and would be lucky to experience a week like that ever again. But always in good spirits, we soon looked forward to our new destination, as we knew we had only dented last year’s tour snowfall total. There would be more light and dry for the POWDER to the People Tour down the road.