How could it be more perfect?

Matt Marcinek readying for a trip down

How could winter weather be more perfect?
Sunday was the kind of day one remembers forever.
The sky couldn’t have been a deeper blue, cloudless and windless.
The powder snow glistened like colorful jewelry in the bright sunlight.
We did the full Deadman trail run in the Little Belts with a stop in the south bowls for some telemark turns.
Our fun was cut short, though when the steep slopes began to settle and crack signaling instability.
No, stupidly we failed to dig a snow pit before descending to the bottoms.
As we cut our trail back to the ridgeline we could see about two feet of powder was sitting atop a sugar layer that began collapsing under our weight.
However, we had several heavenly runs in that powder before our turning was cut prematurely.
The only possible negative was the temperature, which began in the negatives.
When we parked the car at the Deadman parking lot it was minus 7. When we started the trip at Kings Hill Pass it was minus 3.
The radiant sunshine warmed us up quickly, though.
By the time we reached the ridgeline I had stripped down to a sweatshirt and my down vest and taken off my facemask.
I noticed after the ski that my wife’s face had reddened from sunburn.
Otherwise the ski was straightforward from beginning to end.
I rarely go all the way through the run, preferring instead to linger at the bowls for tele turns and to turn back to the car.
It was fun to travel the entire route on such a bright, sunny day and yet enjoy the outstanding snow that because of the cold remained granular powder.
When the heat of summer is overwhelming me this day will come to mind as the ideal.