Day 1: In the bag.
After skiing the WROD on opening day last season, today was a pleasant change of pace. It feels good to be posting a TR again. It felt even better to go through the usual ski day routine of stopping into Einstein Bagel on Wasatch Blvd. for a cinnamon sugar bagel with honey butter en route to the hill. It didn't feel quite so good to get down to Wasatch Blvd. and realize that my ski boots were still at the house. Hey, I'm still a bit rusty even though it's been less than 5 months since the last ski season ended.
Nonetheless, I pulled into the lot at just shy of 8:30 a.m. and scored front row parking 15 steps from the door of Brighton Center. After booting up I headed up to the third floor where I ran into Julian Carr, Erik Seo and Stephanie Nitsch, whom forum regulars will recall as the snowboarder who kicked my ass last March at PCMR (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8750). She was there freelancing for ESPN. Erik was, as always, shooting pics, this time for ESPN as well. And Julian, well...Julian was doing what he does best: ripping. That's all. Warren Miller movie fans should be well acquainted with him.
Stephanie disappeared as I headed out to the lift line at Majestic and hooked up with Julian and Erik.
Without even trying hard we were in line for 5th chair of the Utah ski season. After a short delay, the lift started loading and stopped and started up the hill. KSL-TV and KSTU-TV were both filming. Jessica was lining up shots for Ski Utah. Other reporters were milling about and interviewing the crowd as the line grew.
They were still grooming access to Snake Creek, so we lapped Majestic a few times. The manmade under the lift was variable, soft one minute and death cookies the next, but the groomed natural snow on Lower Majestic and Lower Mary was delightful, if unusually undulating due to the thin cover. On the second run I met up with mbaydala and Kevin Rapf from Park City TV, and spent a few runs skiing with them.
Eventually another FTO writer, Gina Begin (forum user ilikewinter), showed up while we were waiting in a five-minute line for Majestic. I handed her and Steve their lift tickets and agreed to met them at the top. When we got there, though, patrol had dropped the rope on Snake Creek Access and Matt and Kevin pushed on ahead.
Joining Steve and Gina, we headed straight for Snake Creek ourselves and found Stephanie there.
Snow here was darned near perfect as they've made nothing up there. Groomers were soft and smooth, and we found boot top untracked by wandering off the groomers. Hats off to Brighton for letting us track up the joint without marking very much as closed.
I spent the rest of the morning with Stephanie, Gina and Steve. I was the group's resident old guy:
Honestly, we had a blast, and I was sorry to have to leave to go to work. It's definitely worth starting and quitting work a few hours late, respectively, to enjoy a few runs in the morning on the state's opening day.
Television footage is just now going to air, so stay tuned...video is forthcoming, as is our news article.
After skiing the WROD on opening day last season, today was a pleasant change of pace. It feels good to be posting a TR again. It felt even better to go through the usual ski day routine of stopping into Einstein Bagel on Wasatch Blvd. for a cinnamon sugar bagel with honey butter en route to the hill. It didn't feel quite so good to get down to Wasatch Blvd. and realize that my ski boots were still at the house. Hey, I'm still a bit rusty even though it's been less than 5 months since the last ski season ended.
Nonetheless, I pulled into the lot at just shy of 8:30 a.m. and scored front row parking 15 steps from the door of Brighton Center. After booting up I headed up to the third floor where I ran into Julian Carr, Erik Seo and Stephanie Nitsch, whom forum regulars will recall as the snowboarder who kicked my ass last March at PCMR (viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8750). She was there freelancing for ESPN. Erik was, as always, shooting pics, this time for ESPN as well. And Julian, well...Julian was doing what he does best: ripping. That's all. Warren Miller movie fans should be well acquainted with him.
Stephanie disappeared as I headed out to the lift line at Majestic and hooked up with Julian and Erik.
Without even trying hard we were in line for 5th chair of the Utah ski season. After a short delay, the lift started loading and stopped and started up the hill. KSL-TV and KSTU-TV were both filming. Jessica was lining up shots for Ski Utah. Other reporters were milling about and interviewing the crowd as the line grew.
They were still grooming access to Snake Creek, so we lapped Majestic a few times. The manmade under the lift was variable, soft one minute and death cookies the next, but the groomed natural snow on Lower Majestic and Lower Mary was delightful, if unusually undulating due to the thin cover. On the second run I met up with mbaydala and Kevin Rapf from Park City TV, and spent a few runs skiing with them.
Eventually another FTO writer, Gina Begin (forum user ilikewinter), showed up while we were waiting in a five-minute line for Majestic. I handed her and Steve their lift tickets and agreed to met them at the top. When we got there, though, patrol had dropped the rope on Snake Creek Access and Matt and Kevin pushed on ahead.
Joining Steve and Gina, we headed straight for Snake Creek ourselves and found Stephanie there.
Snow here was darned near perfect as they've made nothing up there. Groomers were soft and smooth, and we found boot top untracked by wandering off the groomers. Hats off to Brighton for letting us track up the joint without marking very much as closed.
I spent the rest of the morning with Stephanie, Gina and Steve. I was the group's resident old guy:
Honestly, we had a blast, and I was sorry to have to leave to go to work. It's definitely worth starting and quitting work a few hours late, respectively, to enjoy a few runs in the morning on the state's opening day.
Television footage is just now going to air, so stay tuned...video is forthcoming, as is our news article.
=D> 
