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Ben Stefanski and Audrey Landis look for lap two. 📸 Liam McGee

Zip, zip, zip. Only the soft sound of mohair sliding over an icy skintrack interrupts the night as I rush to catch up with the group ahead of me. The darkness shrinks in around me, fresh snow muffles any sounds outside my little bubble of warmth, and cold, crisp air stings my nostrils. I’m breathing heavily by the time I catch up, and we turn left up towards Alta’s Baldy Shoulder.

On the ridgeline, we peer down the fall line as we skin, trying to suss out early-season rocks and how supportive the new snow will be.

“I feel like I’m alive again,” my friend says when we rip skins. An hour earlier, she’d been complaining about drowning in law school, wondering if joining us for a nighttime skin in early-season conditions was a really bad idea or just a bad idea.

But in the darkness, fresh snow and cold winter air, those doubts easily unravel. We revel in the muted sound of snowy landscapes and question why traveling in the billowing fog of our own breath is so comforting. There’s something special about winter in the mountains. An element different from any other season. The adventure or solitude or simple cold. On the ridge, none of us can put a finger on it.

The skiing’s so good we skin up for a second lap, despite the protestations of hungry stomachs and the fact that, thanks to a forgotten headlamp, I can’t see. Turns out, it was a good idea.

—Liam

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