When we rolled into the Ginzton Compound, Nate’s dad David and Step mom Linda were ready for us with homecooked food and a warm place to sleep. Another difference in our childhoods is that Nate grew up on 70 acres, while I don’t know what an acre is. On the property there is a house, garage, huge shop, studio and even a pond. The property backs up to a huge expanse of undeveloped land that is heaven for ATVs and motorcycles. Nice.
The other nice thing that happened was that a storm moved in when we arrived and started dumping snow. The next morning we woke to a few inches on the ground, which translated to almost a foot up a Schweitzer, the local ski area. It was wet, heavy powder but made tree skiing and cliff hucking perfect. We found fresh tracks in the trees all day long, and made a point of seeking out all the good rocks and cornices to jump off of. Half the time my jumps would end in a faceplant, but the snow was so great it was like falling in a vat of marshmallows. That night, after getting our fill of powder on skis, we hopped on the ATV’s that Nate’s dad has and went tearing around back in the forest. I’ve ridden ATV’s before and they sure are fun, but in the snow it was awesome. Big, sideways snow-flying slides were the norm and you could do endless donuts, flinging snow and dirt everywhere. Gas-powered fun rocks!
After a day like that, I wasn’t sure it could get better. We were both talking “one of the top five days of the trip.” But that night, it got a bit colder and kept dumping, which made for 8” of light powder on top of the heavy stuff. It was as close to bottomless as you could get. To make it even better, Schweitzer isn’t exactly a destination resort, so we got fresh tracks all day long, hardly even crossing our own tracks. We didn’t even stop for lunch, just skied straight from morning to the last lift ride at 3:57 pm. The locals were all talking about it being one of the best days in years. It made it solidly into our best three days of the trip.
The storm did stop eventually, and the next day (and our last day in Sandpoint) the sun came out and we went skiing with Nate’s dad. We all had a great time ripping down the mountain on the now packed-powder. Nate and I did our best to ski the halfpipe, but it was mostly a disaster. The most amazing part (for me at least, used to skiing big resorts) was that we still found untracked thigh-deep powder hidden in the trees. After skiing that day, we took one last ride on the ATV’s (Nate brother Chris was in town and showed us all how to ride an ATV, doing wheelies with Nate hanging on for dear life), ate some dinner, and then it was back on the road again.