Day 57: Hunting at Solitude
Today was Ski Utah's Local Media Day, an annual event when Ski Utah gathers local journalists to express their appreciation for the season, hand out Journalist and Weather Enthusiast of the Year awards, ski, eat and generally have a good time.
Breakfast was scheduled for 8-9 a.m. in Kimi's Mountainside Bistro. The roads this morning, though, were pure hell. I left the house at around 7:45, figuring I'd arrive by 8:20 or so. I heard on the radio that LCC was closed due to an accident and I-80 through Parley's Canyon was closed in both directions. BCC was just under 4x4/chain restrictions. Shortly after entering BCC, however, traffic ground to a halt right at Dogwood. After sitting there for a good 5-10 minutes we were able to get past the three-vehicle accident that included a UTA bus. Two turns later there was an SUV sitting in the ditch and blocking the downhill lane. Rounding the corner and beginning up the hill climb east of Stairs Gulch, another downhill vehicle was stuck, this time across the uphill lane. Around the next left hand turn heading up toward the Storm Mountain Amphitheater there were two separate accidents across the road, one involving another UTA bus and the other a Sysco truck. In all I think that I passed a total of six accidents before we even got to the S-turn. The snow came down fast, furious and wet in the beginning and immediately froze into a half-inch thick layer of ice, covered by more snow. Nasty stuff. Even some long time resort employees were saying that it was the worst they've ever seen.
As a result I didn't walk into the breakfast until 8:45, and much to my surprise I was the first one there other than some of the Ski Utah and Solitude people. I had no reason to rush, for no one else was able to get there.
Anyone who follows the Twitter handle @FirstTracksMag got to see a whole slew of random photos this morning, all with the hash tag #LDM12. That was because the morning was occupied by an on-mountain scavenger hunt. I formed a team with Vanessa, Tom and Melissa, who all arrived shortly after I did, and we headed out at 9:35 a.m. with a strategy. I quickly took the list of items and sorted it into a natural order. We had to take a photo of each item and tweet it with the hash tag above:
We were done in under 80 minutes to take the prize, a bountiful bag of swag and bragging rights.
After a tasty lunch back at Kimi's, Utah Governor Gary Herbert spoke for a few minutes:
...before he signed into law the bill naming skiing and snowboarding Utah's official state winter sports. When you realize that Utah already has an official state cookware (the Dutch oven), an official state vegetable (the Spanish onion), etc., this is really no biggie.
After that came the Journalist and Weather Enthusiast of the year awards. While yours truly was both shocked and flattered to find himself nominated for Journalist of the Year -- for what particular feat, I'm not quite sure -- the winner was the far more deserving Tim Hughes and Jeff Sory who host the Outdoors Show on KSL. The Weather Enthusiast of the Year went to Craig Gordon of the Utah Avalanche Center, and I couldn't think of anyone more deserving of the title.
It was still snowing after lunch, so Tom and I went out for a few more runs. By now I'm guessing that the snowfall had accumulated to a good 8" or so, more in some places like Summit and much less in lower Honeycomb Canyon. Now open, we went out the Black Forest gate from the summit into the east side of Honeycomb Canyon and had a few soft completely untracked turns before we quickly found ourselves bottoming out again. The Honeycomb Return lift is closed for the season so it's a long slog just to get out of there.
It may not have been deep, but it was definitely fun.
Edit: When I got home I found my brand new North Face gear vest in the middle of the living room floor. A short distance away I found the shredded remnants of the wrapper of a Swiss chocolate bar and the zipper pull from the pocket on the gear vest that had been holding it. A little further away still, I found a very repentant laborador retriever pup. :evil: Does anyone know a seamstress service in SLC that's good with outdoor gear?
Today was Ski Utah's Local Media Day, an annual event when Ski Utah gathers local journalists to express their appreciation for the season, hand out Journalist and Weather Enthusiast of the Year awards, ski, eat and generally have a good time.
Breakfast was scheduled for 8-9 a.m. in Kimi's Mountainside Bistro. The roads this morning, though, were pure hell. I left the house at around 7:45, figuring I'd arrive by 8:20 or so. I heard on the radio that LCC was closed due to an accident and I-80 through Parley's Canyon was closed in both directions. BCC was just under 4x4/chain restrictions. Shortly after entering BCC, however, traffic ground to a halt right at Dogwood. After sitting there for a good 5-10 minutes we were able to get past the three-vehicle accident that included a UTA bus. Two turns later there was an SUV sitting in the ditch and blocking the downhill lane. Rounding the corner and beginning up the hill climb east of Stairs Gulch, another downhill vehicle was stuck, this time across the uphill lane. Around the next left hand turn heading up toward the Storm Mountain Amphitheater there were two separate accidents across the road, one involving another UTA bus and the other a Sysco truck. In all I think that I passed a total of six accidents before we even got to the S-turn. The snow came down fast, furious and wet in the beginning and immediately froze into a half-inch thick layer of ice, covered by more snow. Nasty stuff. Even some long time resort employees were saying that it was the worst they've ever seen.
As a result I didn't walk into the breakfast until 8:45, and much to my surprise I was the first one there other than some of the Ski Utah and Solitude people. I had no reason to rush, for no one else was able to get there.
Anyone who follows the Twitter handle @FirstTracksMag got to see a whole slew of random photos this morning, all with the hash tag #LDM12. That was because the morning was occupied by an on-mountain scavenger hunt. I formed a team with Vanessa, Tom and Melissa, who all arrived shortly after I did, and we headed out at 9:35 a.m. with a strategy. I quickly took the list of items and sorted it into a natural order. We had to take a photo of each item and tweet it with the hash tag above:
We were done in under 80 minutes to take the prize, a bountiful bag of swag and bragging rights.
After a tasty lunch back at Kimi's, Utah Governor Gary Herbert spoke for a few minutes:
...before he signed into law the bill naming skiing and snowboarding Utah's official state winter sports. When you realize that Utah already has an official state cookware (the Dutch oven), an official state vegetable (the Spanish onion), etc., this is really no biggie.
After that came the Journalist and Weather Enthusiast of the year awards. While yours truly was both shocked and flattered to find himself nominated for Journalist of the Year -- for what particular feat, I'm not quite sure -- the winner was the far more deserving Tim Hughes and Jeff Sory who host the Outdoors Show on KSL. The Weather Enthusiast of the Year went to Craig Gordon of the Utah Avalanche Center, and I couldn't think of anyone more deserving of the title.
It was still snowing after lunch, so Tom and I went out for a few more runs. By now I'm guessing that the snowfall had accumulated to a good 8" or so, more in some places like Summit and much less in lower Honeycomb Canyon. Now open, we went out the Black Forest gate from the summit into the east side of Honeycomb Canyon and had a few soft completely untracked turns before we quickly found ourselves bottoming out again. The Honeycomb Return lift is closed for the season so it's a long slog just to get out of there.
It may not have been deep, but it was definitely fun.
Edit: When I got home I found my brand new North Face gear vest in the middle of the living room floor. A short distance away I found the shredded remnants of the wrapper of a Swiss chocolate bar and the zipper pull from the pocket on the gear vest that had been holding it. A little further away still, I found a very repentant laborador retriever pup. :evil: Does anyone know a seamstress service in SLC that's good with outdoor gear?
