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Well, midwinter has arrived in Vermont and I enjoyed two days of great powder skiing with no crowds thanks to the mid-week arrival of the storm. Snow was well underway both days, so I parked at the Jackson Gore side to avoid the steep pitch of the main Okemo approach road. Front wheel drive isn't going to cut it up here, not even with my beloved Blizzaks. I feel there is a Subaru in my future. Tuesday saw the more significant snowfall, and the snow was beautiful and untracked, or very lightly tracked, for quite a few runs. After that, it begin to form into push-piles, which were fun but exhausting. I loved the chance to learn to ski "moguls" a bit on blue runs. Though weirdly the piles tended to form more like giant, vertical furrows rather than discrete bumps. That was a challenge; I decided the most fun option was to hop back and forth over the furrow, so it was like one really long mogul, The snow kept dumping until about 5pm, so each run was different every time you did it. I'm no good at skiing powder/3D snow, but I was very psyched for the opportunity to practice. It's hard to stay forward--that was my main challenge. And also being patient with my turns and not trying to shove carvery turns everywhere. Gentle pivots seemed to work best. I started out each day on the J-G side, doing Moondance, then worked my way over to the Solitude chair and worked all the blue trails over there. Didn't spend much time taking the 6-pack to the summit. Visibility was sketchy the times I was up there, and I was having the most fun over at Solitude. Plus Epic Restaurant there has the best $10 lunch you can get at a ski resort: life-altering chicken and waffles. There weren't any crowds at all, but things really thinned out after about noon. I think people were just tired. Wednesday was more of the same, though with conditions a bit more packed down on some trails, which was nice in a way in that it took a lot less energy to ski, but wasn't near as much fun as the day prior. I stayed in Ludlow Tuesday night, because I didn't want to have to drive the 40 minutes back and forth to Quechee in the storm.(The nearer resorts, Quechee and Suicide Six, are not open during the week these days, so a drive was required), Homestyle Hostel on Main street, Ludlow is a really great place: highly recommend if you need an inexpensive dorm bed. Met a guy who quit his job in November and was on Day 74 so far this year. While grabbing a quick bite of dinner at Kilarney's, their regular pub trivia quiz started up. The guy sitting next to me at the bar asked if I wanted to form a team, so we called ourselves "Strangers at a Bar" and recruited anyone who happened to be near us. We ended up with a solid roster and won most of the rounds. After the teams turned in our answer sheets, I looked over at the judge, who was scoring them, and said to my bar neighbor: "See that guy? He's grading. I never have to do that again. Ever!" That was a good feeling.