Day 46: Recipe for Guido's Whipped Cream Pie
Ingredients:
Directions:
Spread Cool Whip onto crust, approximately 3 inches thick.
Serve chilled.
With the recent warm weather, followed by a solid freeze accompanied by a paltry 5 inches of new snow I'd expected the worst today, but any day on the hill beats a day at work and my office was shutting down for an internal celebration at 12:30 p.m. I'd managed to talk two of our staff, Jill and Scott, into joining Skidog and myself for a few hours of Friday afternoon skiing.
What I'd hoped for was a bright, sunny spring afternoon. What we got instead was the recipe above. I therefore expected to be sticking to groomers, which really would've been a shame because Jill and Scott needed to see some of Alta's more interesting terrain.
We rode up Collins and skied down Razorback to the Supreme Road, finding the expected hard-packed base with a little loose stuff on top. Atop Supreme, Skidog offered to be the crash test dummy and found crunchy stuff in No. 9 Trees while the rest of us skied death cookies on Sleepy Hollow -- not exactly what I'd been hoping for.
One more cruiser off Supreme, this time down Big Dipper to Rock 'n Roll yielded better results. We headed up Sugarloaf, and finding that the few people at Alta today were all on Devil's Elbow we headed to Collins Gulch instead. We headed out the Ballroom Traverse to Armpit and found much better snow than I'd expected this time.
Emboldened by our find, we hatched a plan to hit North Rustler. We cautioned the two from my office about the potentially miserable High T, but it delivered another surprise as it was smooth and edgeable for once. Through Piss Pass, we dropped into North Rustler to find surprisingly good snow.
Time was running short, so we rode Sunnyside to Sugarloaf and traversed back around to the T, this time hiking up to Gunsight, figuring that the northeast exposure would ski well. It did, but Gunsight would have more in store for our guests.
I dropped down a few yards to set up for photos from the wall on skier's left of the initial drop. Skidog dropped through without incident. Now it was Scott's turn.
He yelled something about the biggest bumps he'd ever seen before hesitantly dropping in. He got caught up at first, then regained his composure and was knocking off some decent turns before one particulary large bump knocked him into a wide stance. His downhill ski carried momentum as his uphill ski ground to a stop, so he got swung around and was now decending Gunsight backwards. That lasted for about one bump before one ski popped off and he was sent into a backward-somersalting fall. Another ski popped off, then both poles went flying as he tumbled for another 75 yards, leaving a trail of gear strewn throughout the chute.
All this while Jill, somewhat flustered by the tight, steep, bumpy entrance, watched from above. Scott's fall was the final straw, and her mind-screw was now complete. While her skills were there her head wasn't, and while she descended more than competently it pretty much wiped out any thoughts of a last run.
It was now 4:20, so short on time the remaining three of us hopped on Sunnyside for one final fling down Vail Ridge. It really turned out to be a much better afternoon than expected.
Ingredients:
- 1 pie crust
- 1 tub of Cool Whip
Directions:
Spread Cool Whip onto crust, approximately 3 inches thick.
Serve chilled.
With the recent warm weather, followed by a solid freeze accompanied by a paltry 5 inches of new snow I'd expected the worst today, but any day on the hill beats a day at work and my office was shutting down for an internal celebration at 12:30 p.m. I'd managed to talk two of our staff, Jill and Scott, into joining Skidog and myself for a few hours of Friday afternoon skiing.
What I'd hoped for was a bright, sunny spring afternoon. What we got instead was the recipe above. I therefore expected to be sticking to groomers, which really would've been a shame because Jill and Scott needed to see some of Alta's more interesting terrain.
We rode up Collins and skied down Razorback to the Supreme Road, finding the expected hard-packed base with a little loose stuff on top. Atop Supreme, Skidog offered to be the crash test dummy and found crunchy stuff in No. 9 Trees while the rest of us skied death cookies on Sleepy Hollow -- not exactly what I'd been hoping for.
One more cruiser off Supreme, this time down Big Dipper to Rock 'n Roll yielded better results. We headed up Sugarloaf, and finding that the few people at Alta today were all on Devil's Elbow we headed to Collins Gulch instead. We headed out the Ballroom Traverse to Armpit and found much better snow than I'd expected this time.
Emboldened by our find, we hatched a plan to hit North Rustler. We cautioned the two from my office about the potentially miserable High T, but it delivered another surprise as it was smooth and edgeable for once. Through Piss Pass, we dropped into North Rustler to find surprisingly good snow.
Time was running short, so we rode Sunnyside to Sugarloaf and traversed back around to the T, this time hiking up to Gunsight, figuring that the northeast exposure would ski well. It did, but Gunsight would have more in store for our guests.
I dropped down a few yards to set up for photos from the wall on skier's left of the initial drop. Skidog dropped through without incident. Now it was Scott's turn.
He yelled something about the biggest bumps he'd ever seen before hesitantly dropping in. He got caught up at first, then regained his composure and was knocking off some decent turns before one particulary large bump knocked him into a wide stance. His downhill ski carried momentum as his uphill ski ground to a stop, so he got swung around and was now decending Gunsight backwards. That lasted for about one bump before one ski popped off and he was sent into a backward-somersalting fall. Another ski popped off, then both poles went flying as he tumbled for another 75 yards, leaving a trail of gear strewn throughout the chute.
All this while Jill, somewhat flustered by the tight, steep, bumpy entrance, watched from above. Scott's fall was the final straw, and her mind-screw was now complete. While her skills were there her head wasn't, and while she descended more than competently it pretty much wiped out any thoughts of a last run.
It was now 4:20, so short on time the remaining three of us hopped on Sunnyside for one final fling down Vail Ridge. It really turned out to be a much better afternoon than expected.
