On (Inadvertently) Chasing Mountain Lions

It had been the better part of a week since I had enjoyed my escape, a predawn resort tour at my home mountain. 

I usually didn’t let more than two days pass without taking to the still closed and darkened resort with skis, climbing skins, and a headlamp for my snowy two-thousand vertical foot jaunt before daybreak. Other priorities had intervened, but there I was again, ascending a mountain under silent, still chairlifts and a starry sky yet to see sunrise. All to ski just one run. It...