In late January we had many days of snow with over 40″ falling in about 11 days. What a great chance to ski down Skunk Canyon. I’ve been here many times walking, running, and mountain biking—but never skiing.

In the morning, it was quite cold—the overnight low temperature was +9°F—and the snow was very dry; Swix Blue Extra Wax was perfect for getting a bit of grip and a good glide. There was a broken trail part of the way into the canyon but mostly we had untracked snow and broke our own trail.

At the point where Skunk Canyon briefly gets very narrow everyone but me turned around. I had never been to Fisher Point in the snow and I was probably not going to get another chance for a while so I continued. There were some old, snow-covered ski and snowshoe tracks here and folks had probably come in via Walnut Canyon and the Arizona Trail. But no one else was there while I visited.

I turned around to retrace my steps and within a few minutes was having issues with the rapidly warming snow sticking to my skis. I was no longer able to glide and several inches of heavy snow were clumping to the bottom of the skis. Wow! This was going to be a long slog back to the car. I was pretty tired when I finished and the deep powder was already a distant memory.

And that’s what skiing in Flagstaff is like. Once the storm ends and the sun comes out there is only a very brief window of a few hours. Get it while you can.