STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Dixy and Mark Campbell Hamby are among those making spirits bright on the slopes of Sun Valley during the Christmas holidays.

Dixy is dressed as a Christmas angel with a sequined skirt, lacy wings and sparkling silver flowers across her helmet. Mark…well, you can’t beat the strings of Christmas lights that light up his helmet and the cute little Christmas tie with a felt Snow Man and the words “Merry Christmas” set against a ski parka boasting pine trees flocked in snow.

Mark taught at Mount Bachelor for 52 years. But the couple tried skiing at Sun Valley Resort 32 years ago, even honeymooning here, and they have been the most faithful of fans ever since.

North Valley Ski Patroller Ed Northen, a retired firefighter, boasted a dalmatian Santa hat on Christmas Day, which set just fine with his dalmatian dog Madison.

“We bought a permanent place here during the COVID pandemic when everything was cancelled elsewhere, and we’re striving to get our 100-day pins,” said Dixy. “Last year we came close—95 days on the hill.”

Nearly three feet of snow fell on the top half of Bald Mountain over Christmas Week, enabling Sun Valley Resort to open gobs more runs, including Warm Springs Face, Mid and Lower Limelight, Mid Warm Springs, Graduate, Upper Can Can, Upper French Dip, Upper Janss Pass and Lower Holiday.

And the many California visitors spending Christmas here were grateful to be here, even though Sun Valley has been experiencing warmer than normal temperatures like everywhere else.

“At home the power would be off, the winds would be raging and I’d be looking at flooding,” said one man from Pebble Beach.

Youngsters from San Francisco built an Instagram-worthy Snow Man at Galena Lodge on Christmas Day.

If you are tired of looking at bare ground in Hailey or Bellevue, just head north. The trails around Galena Lodge transformed into a Winter Wonderland this past week.

And the Blaine County Recreation District is now grooming Durrance Loop and the southern part of the Harriman Trail, including Frostbite Flats where a huge bull moose with an impressive crown sauntered across the highway and across the trail just south of Cathedral Pines on Friday.