It was early times in our Eden adventures. Powder Mountain hadn’t given up all her secrets and the novelty of driving to the top of a mountain to start a day of riding was still new. The storm was lingering. I picked up Dave early and we carefully made the sketchy drive up to Hidden Lake and a near empty parking lot. The wind and snow had stopped. The clouds were still so thick that it was dark. Our first few turns were shrouded in fog, then quickly an untouched mountain revealed itself and shin-deep freshies awaited. We blasted down the bottom of Main Line to keep our speed and with just a little extra effort to cut trail were able to make our way to the top of Breakaway….and then over the next 5 minutes the magic happened. The lift above us stopped. Total quiet. The clouds parted in a dynamic swirl while we just stood and watched. We were bathed in bright sunshine. The air was filled with glistening, unseeable snowflakes, and as we looked down the slope, our long shadows in front of us, a perfect carpet of powder sparkled as if the snow were covered with diamonds. Dave and I just stood there and laughed. Then, Dave smiled, got that silly, incredulous look on his face and asked, “How cool is this?”, and we laughed again. It was Pure Stoke, and I’m so glad to have shared it with Dave.