The west (Grand Lake) side of Rocky Mountain National Park has much better snow that the east side so the quest for deep powder took John and Arvind over Berthoud Pass, through Fraser (the ice box of Colorado, -6F), and into the park.

After convincing the ranger that they were indeed studly skiers, John and Arvind were sent to the Green Mountain trail to ski up to Big Meadows.

The snow was shallow and powdery. Intrepid snow stompers had already broken trail.

The trail was narrow and steep in places. Great stuff for John but an occasional challenge for Team Madras.

On this tour Arvind realized that his destiny is to quit the professor buisness and become the captain of India's olympic cross country ski team.

Good luck at the winter games, dude!

The heroic adventurers returned to the car eager to get on one more tour. Next goal: the Timber Lake trail, an even steeper and gnarlier trail than Green Mountain.

Alas, nobody had broken the trail and even John became hopelessly lost.

But it was not in vain! A slope of perfect snow gave Arvind his big chance to become a powder hound.

Now that he has tasted good powder Arvind will never be happy skiing in Connecticut again.

Next: Panic on Granite