My daughter paints in oils. One of her paintings of a goat’s face looks realistic from a distance but is a swatch book or color when examined closely. “There are so many colors within color,” she has told me. I decide to practice observing like an artist on an early morning ski tour.

This winter WenatcheeOutdoors has advocated skiing the local foothills because the snowpack is better than usual, the avalanche hazard in the high mountains has been more extreme than usual, the foothills are a quick fix for excitement, and because you won’t burn much oil accessing local slopes.