A new realm of possibility was opened up for Mack this weekend. We already established that Skyline Lake was the coolest thing Smackimus had ever seen, 
but there was one missing ingredient for the Total Awesomeness (TA) that Mack always knew existed: snow.
Anyone who has spent time with Mack knows that Semi Awesomeness (SA) is the baine of his existence. In any given situation, he is giving 110% to find a way to make it rule more. This usually results in him pissing someone off and Semi Awesomeness quickly becoming No Awesomeness, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop trying. At long last, Total Awesomeness has been found. It was established when Jim and I took Mack and Bromley backcountry skiing last weekend. Bromley was already well established in the backcountry ways, but this was a new one for Mack. While he had been snowshoeing with us in Minnesota, it lacked a certain element of speed. Backcountry allowed him to chase us at full tilt while jumping off cliffs into snowbanks.
The top two maneuvers that established TA were the following:
- The End-O. There was a reasonably firm top layer of snow on some of the slopes we were skiing. Just firm enough for a dog to stay on top of, but not firm enough to hold the skiers. Jim and I figured out pretty quickly that the best way to manage the dogs (read: keep them from running into the path of a skier and taking a metal ski edge to the jugular) was to have Jim ski in front with the dogs chasing him, and have me ski behind, keeping the dogs between us. Mack was chasing Jim at full tilt, staying on the surface of the snow. Suddenly, he post-holed both front legs up to his chest and did a complete flip. He didn’t miss a beat and just kept on chasing.
- The Huckleberry Dill. Jim witnessed more of this than I did, but I think I can convey the incident with some degree of accuracy. Mack was blasting through the woods and came to a small ledge maybe 8 feet high. Naturally, he hucked off the top of it, tucking his paws up under his chest for maximum aerodynamics. After a few moments, he stretched out his paws to ready for a graceful, feather-light landing into the snowbank below. The only unexpected element was that the snowbank was seemingly bottomless and Mack disappeared into to a puff of snow. Poof.
