cold, windy and surreal

So I had the day off today and I needed to test out my new boots. I got up a bit late (finally got some sleep) and headed out to the mountain. The first clue I missed was teh howling winds outside my window, but for what ever reason it didn't register. Then when I got off the bus the gondola was stopped. It occured to me then that the wind was guite strong and the conditions were pretty shitty. Oh well, I had new boots to try so I jumped on the bus and headed up to the hill. Once I got there, I saw that a bunch of lifts were closed due to high wind. It wsn't looking good. Basically the whole of Peak 8 was closed except a double chair that would get you over to Peak 9. Peak 7 was still open and running but the lifts that accessed it were closed. So I jumped the lift over to Peak 9 and took a few runs there and getting over there I had one of my best runs ever. The wind was howling, the snow was blowing, I could barely see my snowboard because of the blowing snow. I was on a crappy easy run connecting me over to Peak 9 with 4 snow cats ahead of me. I had my tunes going and the whole thing was a detached surreal experience because basically all my senses were numbed. I couldn't see the snow, I couldn't hear the board, I couldn't feel the snow because I was on my new boots that are a lot stiffer than my old ones. And with all that, I was cruising the run weaving in and out of the snow cats grooming the run in a world without sensation. It was just amazing.