Day 36: A tale of two ski areas.
Wednesday dawned bright, cloudless and spring-like. I started out my day at Brighton's Millicent Lift, but only after downing a humungous breakfast at the Milly Chalet that would keep me going without my normal stop for lunch.
I started out with a few laps on Millicent Express with my friend Scott -- first a groomer warmup, then an exploratory mission out across Millicent Bowl to Scree Slope, which turned out to be ill-advised as the snow was still more than a bit stiff off the groomed.
Scott and I then began to work our way from looker's right to looker's left across the resort, taking a couple of laps on Crest and a couple on Snake Creek before arriving at Great Western, where we were joined by Paul from Ski Utah as well as a few others. We then began working our way slowly back to looker's right again.
Just as most of the others left around noon, I bumped into my friend Greg, an Alta passholder. He's also been a Brighton passholder for the past 32 years, and was skiing his 83rd consecutive day this season (he hadn't missed a single day yet). Craig, a guy from Las Vegas who owns TV stations both in Vegas and SLC, and I joined Greg for the next couple of hours tooling around more of Brighton's groomers. This was like skiing with Mr. Brighton. There was no one there who Greg didn't know, nor was there anyone there who Greg wouldn't stop to talk to. Most lift rides included open container violations. To say that this was entertaining would be a massive understatement.
But by 2:15 I took my boots off and drove down BCC, only to immediately turn up LCC. I was headed to Alta to take a few runs with jkamien, who was in town Wednesday through Friday only.
I arrived at 3 p.m. sharp, but jkamien was enrolled in an advanced skier clinic until 4 p.m., so I joined Mira, Sima and their friend Matt for a few laps. Off-piste was largely still stiff, save for some smoother, chalkier snow on Baldy Shoulder. We added jkamien to the mix at 4 p.m. and skied right until Collins closed at 4:30, followed by après-ski drinks and dinner in Mira and Sima's unit at the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird for the second time in four days.
Wednesday dawned bright, cloudless and spring-like. I started out my day at Brighton's Millicent Lift, but only after downing a humungous breakfast at the Milly Chalet that would keep me going without my normal stop for lunch.
I started out with a few laps on Millicent Express with my friend Scott -- first a groomer warmup, then an exploratory mission out across Millicent Bowl to Scree Slope, which turned out to be ill-advised as the snow was still more than a bit stiff off the groomed.
Scott and I then began to work our way from looker's right to looker's left across the resort, taking a couple of laps on Crest and a couple on Snake Creek before arriving at Great Western, where we were joined by Paul from Ski Utah as well as a few others. We then began working our way slowly back to looker's right again.
Just as most of the others left around noon, I bumped into my friend Greg, an Alta passholder. He's also been a Brighton passholder for the past 32 years, and was skiing his 83rd consecutive day this season (he hadn't missed a single day yet). Craig, a guy from Las Vegas who owns TV stations both in Vegas and SLC, and I joined Greg for the next couple of hours tooling around more of Brighton's groomers. This was like skiing with Mr. Brighton. There was no one there who Greg didn't know, nor was there anyone there who Greg wouldn't stop to talk to. Most lift rides included open container violations. To say that this was entertaining would be a massive understatement.
But by 2:15 I took my boots off and drove down BCC, only to immediately turn up LCC. I was headed to Alta to take a few runs with jkamien, who was in town Wednesday through Friday only.
I arrived at 3 p.m. sharp, but jkamien was enrolled in an advanced skier clinic until 4 p.m., so I joined Mira, Sima and their friend Matt for a few laps. Off-piste was largely still stiff, save for some smoother, chalkier snow on Baldy Shoulder. We added jkamien to the mix at 4 p.m. and skied right until Collins closed at 4:30, followed by après-ski drinks and dinner in Mira and Sima's unit at the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird for the second time in four days.
