Visions of The Goal spur us on, and the skies are helping our backcountry cause by keeping the Colorado slopes free of fresh. We discuss The Route as if it were gospel. Mythical. Day one: Argentiere over the Col du Chardonnet. Visions of this hanging glacier keep our feet moving. Clack-thwap-glide. Clack-thwap-glide. Repeat ad nauseam.

Maybe the abbreviated hill is just a flirting taunt at the season yet to unfold. Perhaps these early days help us to appreciate the epic storms and closed-passes that are (allegedly) sure to materialize in scant weeks. But I know this much- that even on opening day, skiing is fun.

Ski season is a precious and fleeting gem; it is in its brevity that we come to fall in love anew each fall. Ski season never progresses past the honeymoon stage- it is a burning love, too brief to grow stale. Each season we must grow reacquainted with our old haunts, our favorite run, the spacing of the glades, the terrain underfoot.