April 17th and still skiing, though the snow has lost its integrity, like certain academics I know, grump, grump

It was one of those 12-hour days in the office, and it seemed to snow all day long. Here is the view from my office. 

When I got home, Enrico had a nice pasta dinner ready, and Alex was playing violin. Ah. 

After dinner I harnessed up Noko, and we went out for a ski. Two observations:

1) Despite the fact that it has been snowing all day, the new snow could not keep up with the melting and there were exposed areas of the trail like the one in the photo below.

2) The snow has lost its integrity. How do I know? Well, when Noko and I were skiing around, every so often we would here a sound like Pshhhh! A whole plate of snow would then collapse. It was quite startling to Noko. It is a cool sound, like all the snow crystals are tiny bells that softly ring together. 

So, it is about over. Soon this little stretch of trail will be under several feet of water, as the river is expected to flood, possibly as much as in 2009. 

When I got back home, Enrico was looking at flood maps. I need to get a kayak and float far, far away from here.