I slid the deck door open to see 3 inches of freshly-fallen snow blanketing the backyard. It was pitch dark outside yet, but I could see the ground fog already starting to obscure the lights on the ridgeline.It was Christmas morning, that one last day when locals still think they can outsmart the tourists and get a few runs in to start the day.Just 12 hours earlier, I had been showing our adult grandkids Santa’s progress in his sleigh. It took them back a few decades to when they were kids as we watched the animated reindeer on NORAD radar make its way from Cleveland to Columbus and on to the Galapagos Islands. I questioned Santa’s routing.As experienced locals, we know full well what is coming. Most know that Christmas and New Year’s Day are not blacked out. So this is it!The mere few inches of snow was feeling more like a powder day — a far cry from two years ago when it was falling at the rate of a foot a night. As the witching hour neared, I wrangled up all my gear, loaded the sleigh and headed off to Canyons Village?Good news. My mobile app told me that McDonald’s was open. Hurray! I quickly ordered a breakfast burrito on the app. Pulling off S.R. 224 quickly, I slid up to the drive-through. No one was home. There would be no breakfast.Happy people were gathering in the cabriolet parking lot, many with Santa’s new skis. I hurriedly slipped into my boots and headed up, meeting my ski buddy for the day, Richard, at the gondola. So far, the strategy was working — just a one-minute wait to board.We whisked up Saddleback Express, admiring the clear shot over to Dreamland, where whispy clouds and dense layers of valley fog clung to the ridgelines. “Let’s do the full run down through Chicane to Tombstone,” I shouted to Richard.The clouds were broken, with just enough light poking through to give the snow a tiny bit of definition. The fresh snow was fully absorbed into the manmade corduroy as we arced feel-good turns down Snow Dancer.Coming into the broad shoulders of Chicane, someone turned out the lights. We descended into one of the thickest clouds I had ever seen — full instrument flying! With visibility about seven feet, I carefully edged turn after turn, more than a little bit fearful of a straightliner beelining their way into me.Off to the right, I passed a guy in a bright orange jacket. Whew, deer-hunting-orange was a perfect colorway for the way. I kept looking for Santa, but he must have remained in the Galapagos.Towards the bottom, we dropped below the clouds and into the line at Tombstone. The Wisconsin deer hunter from New Hampshire with a home in Park City joined us. He did 134 days last year. That’s a lot of skiing. I slunk down in the chair, realizing I had only skied 72.Now, it was time to climb back through the clouds towards a breathtaking view high atop Tombstone. Nothing on the backdrop ridgeline was visible from Square Top over to Murdock. We dropped our tips down onto Another World.I’ll admit, I don’t ski Another World much. I use Tombstone as a gateway to Peak 5. Sadly, that was not an option. Another World is one of those great rippin’ runs on the Canyons side. Somehow, the cloud bank stayed to the north as we etched our arcs into the snow, making lap after lap.It was starting to get a bit sketchy as a green dinosaur (no idea what the relevance of the costume was) nearly took me out straight-lining from behind. That was eclipsed by the dude in the brown coat with orange trim who was just figuring out how to go fast as he wove his way from left to right and back across the run.I was getting worried as more and more skiers poured into Tombstone base. Heading up for our fourth lap, the ticket checker exclaimed: “Holy moly, here they come!”Time to go.Somehow, on our last run of the morning, Another World was wide open as we made our final lap. “It was a productive morning,” we thought as we crossed the draw on the Over-and-Out lift heading back to Canyons Village.The moral of the story? Get out and ski like a local early on New Year’s Day.Happy New Year!The post Ridgelines: Ho ho hoing down through the fog appeared first on Park Record.