Day 32: Great to get out of the junk.
Since about Wednesday I've been fighting a sinus head cold that's enough to make you curl up into a fetal position and sob like a jilted schoolgirl. So even though I promised at sushi last night that I'd meet everyone for breakfast up canyon, a restless night with little sleep left my plans in doubt.
AmyZ had a problem with her car, however, and after assuring her over the phone at 7:15 this morning that I'd give her a ride up the canyon my die was cast. I didn't have much energy today but it probably did me some good to sweat it out a little, and it definitely did me some good to get out of the inversion junk hanging in the Salt Lake Valley.
For there's one thing about our inversions: when it's cold, smoggy and miserable in the valley it looks like this in the mountains:
Clear air, warm sun and deep blue skies prevail in the mountains during valley inversions, even though the fog down low was so thick this morning that it was actually squeezing a few snow flurries from the haze. I'm sure that the smog in the Valley is aggravating my sinuses, but the root cause is clearly a solid cold. Up in the Wasatch it almost felt spring-like today, especially after last week's frigid temps.
One thing that surprised me today was the quality of the ungroomed snow. It's old, to be sure, but it skied rather well, actually, and not too stiff at all. I just wish that I had a bit more energy to throw at it.
In addition to AmyZ I spent the day with Bobby Danger, Skidog, Telejon and TheOtherAmy. Finally got to meet TheOtherAmy's hubby, too, as he joined us after lunch now that he's here in Utah full time. He seems like a really nice guy and he's a fabulous skier to boot.
Before lunch, though, we ditched Skidog and TheOtherAmy to take a few runs at Snowbird, and I was surprised at how much busier it was than at Alta. Alta felt kind of quiet for a Saturday, especially a holiday weekend one at that. Every groomer at Snowbird, though, was a human slalom and the lift line at Mineral Basin Express was a total junk show. Not because of the size of the line necessarily, but because of the layout of the corral. Snowbird, you really need to redesign the way that you're setting that up, for an unrestricted crowd coming from all directions before funneling down to a 180-degree bend/choke in the liftline that leads to a single lane wide enough for 7 or 8 people across is not the way to keep things moving efficiently.
While the lifts were ski-on at Alta it took us a good 15-20 minutes to get through that cluster and board MBE. We fortunately encountered no such lines on Gadzoom or Little Cloud, and the latter's new lift now makes it just as efficient to take those two chairs as it is to board the Tram. We found that out when Telejon failed to materialize at Gadzoom and instead called from the Tram Plaza. He took the Tram, we took the chairs and arrived just a couple of minutes before he did on Hidden Peak.
We also found the longest smooth run of the day on Hyena Ridge in Mineral.
But it wasn't enough to draw me back to Snowbird after lunch, so I stuck around with Skidog, TheOtherAmy and her husband for a couple more runs at Alta -- a Backside and a North Greeley -- while the others returned to the Bird for a bit, before calling it a day just after 2pm to head home and self-medicate with a bottle of whiskey.
Since about Wednesday I've been fighting a sinus head cold that's enough to make you curl up into a fetal position and sob like a jilted schoolgirl. So even though I promised at sushi last night that I'd meet everyone for breakfast up canyon, a restless night with little sleep left my plans in doubt.
AmyZ had a problem with her car, however, and after assuring her over the phone at 7:15 this morning that I'd give her a ride up the canyon my die was cast. I didn't have much energy today but it probably did me some good to sweat it out a little, and it definitely did me some good to get out of the inversion junk hanging in the Salt Lake Valley.
For there's one thing about our inversions: when it's cold, smoggy and miserable in the valley it looks like this in the mountains:
Clear air, warm sun and deep blue skies prevail in the mountains during valley inversions, even though the fog down low was so thick this morning that it was actually squeezing a few snow flurries from the haze. I'm sure that the smog in the Valley is aggravating my sinuses, but the root cause is clearly a solid cold. Up in the Wasatch it almost felt spring-like today, especially after last week's frigid temps.
One thing that surprised me today was the quality of the ungroomed snow. It's old, to be sure, but it skied rather well, actually, and not too stiff at all. I just wish that I had a bit more energy to throw at it.
In addition to AmyZ I spent the day with Bobby Danger, Skidog, Telejon and TheOtherAmy. Finally got to meet TheOtherAmy's hubby, too, as he joined us after lunch now that he's here in Utah full time. He seems like a really nice guy and he's a fabulous skier to boot.
Before lunch, though, we ditched Skidog and TheOtherAmy to take a few runs at Snowbird, and I was surprised at how much busier it was than at Alta. Alta felt kind of quiet for a Saturday, especially a holiday weekend one at that. Every groomer at Snowbird, though, was a human slalom and the lift line at Mineral Basin Express was a total junk show. Not because of the size of the line necessarily, but because of the layout of the corral. Snowbird, you really need to redesign the way that you're setting that up, for an unrestricted crowd coming from all directions before funneling down to a 180-degree bend/choke in the liftline that leads to a single lane wide enough for 7 or 8 people across is not the way to keep things moving efficiently.
While the lifts were ski-on at Alta it took us a good 15-20 minutes to get through that cluster and board MBE. We fortunately encountered no such lines on Gadzoom or Little Cloud, and the latter's new lift now makes it just as efficient to take those two chairs as it is to board the Tram. We found that out when Telejon failed to materialize at Gadzoom and instead called from the Tram Plaza. He took the Tram, we took the chairs and arrived just a couple of minutes before he did on Hidden Peak.
We also found the longest smooth run of the day on Hyena Ridge in Mineral.
But it wasn't enough to draw me back to Snowbird after lunch, so I stuck around with Skidog, TheOtherAmy and her husband for a couple more runs at Alta -- a Backside and a North Greeley -- while the others returned to the Bird for a bit, before calling it a day just after 2pm to head home and self-medicate with a bottle of whiskey.
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