Sometimes the pull to get outside in the spring is so strong that you just have to play hooky. It seems more than justified after the dark days of winter; I like to think of it as “calling in sunny.” That’s precisely what I did on a beautiful weekday in March to ski in the woods on Lyon Mountain. The conditions were perfect: blue skies and deep snow softening up after a crisp night—a wonderful consolation prize for those of us left behind by friends and neighbors who had fled south.