My kid's plane landed in Salt Lake City around 1:30. Untied Airlines managed to leave his bag in Chicago, too.
"I'm sorry, sir...the bag didn't make the connection."
"Fer chrissakes, he had a scheduled two-hour layover, and a 1.5-hour delay...the bag couldn't find its way to his plane in 3.5 hours??"
His ski boots don't fit anymore, either, so we went down to REI as they were willing to rent just boots. What, I need to bring the skis in? Crap! I run home to get the skis while he tries on the boots, and I loan him my Scream Pilot Hots, a huge step up from what he was on last time. He's now nearly my height and only 15 lbs lighter, so he seemed ready.
Then run back home to try to scrounge up clothing for him: my spare ski pants, my spare ski jacket, my spare helmet, my spare ski socks, my spare long underwear, my spare turtleneck, ...about all that he had of his was a pair of goggles and some poles.
After executing all of this, we didn't pull into the Alta parking lot until 3:45. That did, however, leave us time for two free runs on Sunnyside (Sunnyside is free any day from 3 pm until 4:30 pm). One cruiser on Crooked Mile gave him a chance to get used to the much longer,and heavier skis. It was, however, a human slalom...I never had any idea how many people come up for that free 90 minutes! Parents, kids, people on early 90s Olins and Elan MBXs...and all sporting the bright yellow free Sunnyside ticket. It was great to ski, but mildly frustrating weaving amongst the many people.
For the second run we decided to sample the 6 inches of heavy, wet snow (20% sludge) that had accumulated on Vail Ridge. This stuff fell as barely snow, then set up in the 20 degree temps...ugh! Tough going, to be sure. Off-piste would have to wait for the next storm.
"I'm sorry, sir...the bag didn't make the connection."
"Fer chrissakes, he had a scheduled two-hour layover, and a 1.5-hour delay...the bag couldn't find its way to his plane in 3.5 hours??"
His ski boots don't fit anymore, either, so we went down to REI as they were willing to rent just boots. What, I need to bring the skis in? Crap! I run home to get the skis while he tries on the boots, and I loan him my Scream Pilot Hots, a huge step up from what he was on last time. He's now nearly my height and only 15 lbs lighter, so he seemed ready.
Then run back home to try to scrounge up clothing for him: my spare ski pants, my spare ski jacket, my spare helmet, my spare ski socks, my spare long underwear, my spare turtleneck, ...about all that he had of his was a pair of goggles and some poles.
After executing all of this, we didn't pull into the Alta parking lot until 3:45. That did, however, leave us time for two free runs on Sunnyside (Sunnyside is free any day from 3 pm until 4:30 pm). One cruiser on Crooked Mile gave him a chance to get used to the much longer,and heavier skis. It was, however, a human slalom...I never had any idea how many people come up for that free 90 minutes! Parents, kids, people on early 90s Olins and Elan MBXs...and all sporting the bright yellow free Sunnyside ticket. It was great to ski, but mildly frustrating weaving amongst the many people.
For the second run we decided to sample the 6 inches of heavy, wet snow (20% sludge) that had accumulated on Vail Ridge. This stuff fell as barely snow, then set up in the 20 degree temps...ugh! Tough going, to be sure. Off-piste would have to wait for the next storm.