The 25cm Rule

February is a big month for potential snow storms in the Okanagan. Some of us plan our vacation time around this month hoping not to miss a deep day. This February, our local mountain, Apex, was hit with over 150cm's in 4 days. Freeride wouldn't be a true snowboard shop if we didn't have some sort of a powder rule!

If total snowfall reaches 25cm in 24 hours, we close down the shop for part of the day and go ride.

When we heard a storm was coming, we told the staff of the possible pow day and to be ready. It had been snowing in town all day and the mountain's webcam looked promising, but it isn't until the following morning that we make the official call. 

The alarm went off, and the snow report was already queued up. 35cm's was more than enough to call it. So we raced down to the shop, hung a note on the door and headed for the hill. 

We arrived a little late, but still managed to find a spot in the half full parking lot. It was mid-week so we figured there’d be plenty up there. We made our way down to the lift, but the chairs were still because avy control hadn't quite finished. That was the biggest lineup of the day. After that we waited about 2ish minutes each run. 35cm pow day and short lift lines - only at Apex. 

Sitting on a chairlift with all your best friends, howling at a local legend straight lining a top to bottom run in a single breasted suit jacket and pants is pretty great, but that moment your mind clears as you drop into an untouched run of deep, fluffy, powder puffs is something else. It's like clicking empty on the trashcan of your mind. You have to commit to it. "Are you sure you want to erase items? YES / NO". I think we all need to take out the trash sometimes. 

 "Free refills" our lifty shouted. The snow didn't let up all day long. That never happens. Usually theres a window on the storm, but it just kept falling and continued stacking another 25cm into the night. Could we really close the shop 2 days in a row? That's pretty unheard of, but Rob the owner of the store wouldn’t have it any other way. We weren't arguing! Both locations remained closed until 3pm a second day just to take advantage of the insane conditions.

I only snapped a handful of photos during the day. For once I was too in the moment to be reaching for my phone.. Also, it was too deep!