Hello from the land of the crazies. For those of you who want to take another peek at what I have been up tp lately, I have updated my artwork blog, at www.mountainartist.blogspot.com. Just a few more paintings you may or may not have seen before.

B surprised me the other evening, as I was preparing for bed, by telling me we had the next day off. I had thought our days off were done until March. The next morning we hiked up to Keystone's outback bowls in search of some powder. The news only gave Keystone about five inches of freshies, but in the Outback, there were pockets a foot deep. It actually was the first day this winter of powder deep enough to hit above the knee as one carved through it. I actually felt little poofs of marshmallow whiteness hitting my shoulders as I sliced through it. It was exhilerating, and of course, in the thrill of it all, floating through silent, snow-ghost trees, I went a little too far. I did not find myself out of the ski area boundary, never ducked a rope, but i did find myself in some very dense, unpatrolled, unmaintained forest, choked with brush, criss-crossed with fallen logs, snow undisturbed all winter, layers of crusts which swallowed my board like quicksand. Several times, I had to dig myself out from three feet of dense snow and lift my board to the surface so I could move again. All this while poor B was waiting for me at the designated meeting place. I finally found myself on a run... that I did not recognise. Looked more like a road. It was a road. By my calculations, I was maybe a quarter mile from a lift, so I started walking. Changed my mind, and turned around and walked the other direction. It was a good second-guess, because after walking about twenty minutes, I rounded a corner and found myself at the Northpeak "beach". I slept well last night. Inspite of a crazy, screaming game of dice which last until perhaps one in the morning downstairs. But not everyone expended the effort that I did on not being completely lost.