I didn't ski much yesterday morning. I got to the mountain early and it was cold, nasty and windy. Normally this isn't a problem. I can tough it out. But I left after only a few runs. Here's why.

It was really hot in the afternoon on Saturday. The snow was getting soft and toss all over the mountain by skiers and snowboarders. Overnight, it freezes into unnatural shapes that are very unfun to ski. Resorts like Heavenly try to solve this problem by grooming or running big snow cats over the snow to smooth it out. And it works, but in the early morning, when it's still below 32F, the stuff is still rough to ski.

There was a storm coming in. I wasn't all that cold, but it was windy, especially at the top where you could see the clouds whipping the mountain from west. The high winds shut down the Sky Express lift on the California side, effectively trapping skiers on that side of the mountain. Since there's no other way to get from the California side to the Nevada side, legions of skiers skipping church were jamming the Canyon Express lift. Lift lines were getting insane by 9:30. I didn't want to wait in crazy ass long lines to ski on snow that was less than ideal.

Plus my knee was still tender from a wipeout the previous day. I didn't want to push it. There's more snow on the way and more than a month left in the season. There didn't seem to be much sense is making it worse.

Days Skied This Season: 18