Stepping out of the gondola a little after 4:10 p.m., we can barely see anything with our goggles on. The sun is scheduled to set in about seven minutes, and you can feel the darkness. The lamps are on along all the wooden railings heading toward the peak lodge, and you can see the patrol shack lit up in the distance. But with the clouds weighing in, this final ride down the mountain is definitely going to be in the darkness.
That’s what skiing near the winter solstice can get you: an extremely dark round down, where one of the ambassadors even had their headlamp on red the other day. We got a good chuckle about that, and honestly, it wasn’t a bad idea at all. We only get about 10 hours of daylight this time of year, and the resort is open to 8-9 of them. It’s pretty spectacular.
When it’s that dark, we tend to take the long, slow, green way down, enjoying every little moment that we can and squeezing every bit of daylight out of that day. It’s glorious. We’re not ready for the daylight to end, but the ambassadors usually are as they poke and prod us along the way. Honestly, we don’t want to be up there in the dark without our headlamps either, so away we go.
But sometimes the clouds don’t block the view, and what we get instead are the absolute most stunning sunsets of the year—the vibrancy of the colors, the layers upon layers of that beautiful pink alpenglow. When you get off the gondola on those days when the sky has been blue and cold all day, those are the sunsets we live for.
You’ll know it’s a sunset of your dreams because the peak is crowded. Everyone is standing at the top, looking at the world through their cell phones as they try every angle to take the most perfect photo of this stunning moment. It is something that, no matter how many times I witness a solstice sunset, I cannot seem to believe the beauty of it. It blows my mind. When I was designing my FemaleSkiBum ski for Parlor a few years ago, I agonized over every little detail of the construction and geometry, wanting it to be perfect. But when they asked what color scheme I had in mind for the top sheet. I didn’t even flinch. I told the artists I wanted it to feel like skiing down under the alpenglow.
When the sky is pink, sometimes there is just too much pink, and it starts to reflect off of the snow. Have you ever skied pink snow? I have! And there is a good chance that sometime this week, with the predicted dry, cold temps, we will all get to experience it again. If we’re lucky, the cold winter sunsets will stick around through the first half of January. The colder and drier the air, the more stunning the sunset. It’s science.
Seriously. Moisture in the air scatters the light, so cold, dry days lead to more vibrant colors. The sun’s lower angle in the sky allows the light to travel through the earth’s atmosphere, reducing the blues and instead letting the stunning pinks and purples come screaming out. And, because the sun is lower, the sunsets even last longer. Finally, winter air comes from the north and is crisper and cleaner. Clean air = better, longer colors. So, if you were thinking about whether or not clean air is something to fight for, maybe watching a sunset over the next few weeks could finally convince you.
Yet another reason why winter is just so much better than summer. I mean, skiers and snowboarders have been saying this for years, often to the point of bullying our friends into trying the sports. It’s beautiful, we say, but they never believe us. We’re just crazy, our non-ski friends say. But here we have scientific proof that winter is the best season of all the seasons! We have the best sunsets – and sunrises (but that’s a different column for a different week).
So take a moment or a few to spend some time looking at the sky around 4-4:20 p.m. over the next few weeks, especially if you’re at elevation in the mountains. If you’re a skier or snowboarder, I cannot recommend the last chair and last Gondi enough. Sure, you might not be able to see too well on the way down, but you just might see a miracle of nature that will blow your mind. Everyone should ski pink snow once in their lifetime.
Merisa Sherman is a long-time Killington resident, global real estate advisor, and coach PomPom. She can be reached at [email protected].
