Day 60: Temps in the mid 60s under a blazing sun, with wall-to-wall corn. What's not to like? 8)
Hard to believe, then, that I had a hard time motivating myself this morning to get up there and didn't even leave the house until 11. I haven't skied in three weeks. Half of our usual posse is spending the weekend at a mountain biking festival in the San Rafael Desert. Driving though the Valley this morning I passed people towing boats and campers, bicyclists out riding and golfers swinging clubs. With temps at 5,000 feet reaching the mid-80s (it's 85 here at my house as I type this) I had visions of Elmer's glue. I was never so happy to be wrong.
I headed up the Peruvian chair and through the tunnel into Mineral Basin, and even skier's left of Lone Star wasn't yet porridge. Skiing under the chair Bobby Danger and Skidog passed overhead, and the two waited atop Hidden Peak for me to arrive.
After that we discovered that Old Lady's was in her prime -- an inch or two of perfect billiard table-smooth corn over a supportable base, and we ripped it up again and again, lap after lap, quickly running into Marc_C as well. A couple of runs later Bob's friends Jennifer and Georgie joined us for a trip out to Hourglass, and the run after that we ventured even further into Gad Chutes, all the while remaining mindful of our need to cut back in time to return to Little Cloud.
After a couple of hours things were finally starting to get heavy and we wrapped things up with a trip down Great Scott to cold beers under the hot sun along the Bypass Road. I have to hurry up as we're all getting together for dinner this evening, too. Tomorrow we'll be guiding semi-lurker Sheahunter's wife around when it'll be even 5-10 degrees warmer.
It just doesn't get any better than this.
And Thank God for digital cameras! I somehow shot 395 frames today, which with a film camera would've left me broke. Here are some of the best of them:
Hard to believe, then, that I had a hard time motivating myself this morning to get up there and didn't even leave the house until 11. I haven't skied in three weeks. Half of our usual posse is spending the weekend at a mountain biking festival in the San Rafael Desert. Driving though the Valley this morning I passed people towing boats and campers, bicyclists out riding and golfers swinging clubs. With temps at 5,000 feet reaching the mid-80s (it's 85 here at my house as I type this) I had visions of Elmer's glue. I was never so happy to be wrong.
I headed up the Peruvian chair and through the tunnel into Mineral Basin, and even skier's left of Lone Star wasn't yet porridge. Skiing under the chair Bobby Danger and Skidog passed overhead, and the two waited atop Hidden Peak for me to arrive.
After that we discovered that Old Lady's was in her prime -- an inch or two of perfect billiard table-smooth corn over a supportable base, and we ripped it up again and again, lap after lap, quickly running into Marc_C as well. A couple of runs later Bob's friends Jennifer and Georgie joined us for a trip out to Hourglass, and the run after that we ventured even further into Gad Chutes, all the while remaining mindful of our need to cut back in time to return to Little Cloud.
After a couple of hours things were finally starting to get heavy and we wrapped things up with a trip down Great Scott to cold beers under the hot sun along the Bypass Road. I have to hurry up as we're all getting together for dinner this evening, too. Tomorrow we'll be guiding semi-lurker Sheahunter's wife around when it'll be even 5-10 degrees warmer.
It just doesn't get any better than this.
And Thank God for digital cameras! I somehow shot 395 frames today, which with a film camera would've left me broke. Here are some of the best of them:
Attachments
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15 snowbird bypass rd 080517.jpg -
14 snowbird bobd great scott 080517.jpg -
13 snowbird random great scott 080517.jpg -
12 snowbird skidog great scott 080517.jpg -
11 snowbird marc_c great scott 080517.jpg -
10 snowbird skidog gad chutes 080517.jpg -
09 snowbird jennifer hourglass 080517.jpg -
08 snowbird skidog hourglass 080517.jpg -
07 snowbird bobd hourglass 080517.jpg -
06 snowbird sunday cliffs 080517.jpg -
05 snowbird upper peruvian gulch 080517.jpg -
04 snowbird tram maintenance 080517.jpg -
03 snowbird mid-cirque 080517.jpg -
02 snowbird hellgate 080517.jpg -
01 snowbird andersons 080517.jpg
