Day 57: Lazy days, but a storm's brewing
Both Bob Dangerous and Acidchrist called in the a.m. inviting me to join them over at Snowbird, but it's a rare day when my wife actually wants to go skiing, and Park City has tons of intermediate groomers that are perfect for her. Besides, my season pass at PCMR comes with two free "friends and family" lift tickets, and if it's free, it's for me.
Once again we didn't arrive until 12:45 and things were well softened by that point. In fact, most of the Ski Team Ridge runs on the lower mountain are already melted out. No matter, though, there was plenty of perfect corn available on the mid- and upper-mountain for us. Temps were in the low 60s on the mountain under sunny skies.
We rode Payday and Bonanza to ski the groomers underneath Silverlode before stopping at the Snow Hut deck for a fine picnic lunch in the sun. Parley's Park had absolutely perfect three inches of corn over a firm base underfoot. In fact, that was the case for nearly all of the runs we skied, including Temptation off the King Con lift, where we headed for a couple of runs after lunch.
We worked our way back over to Silverlode to gain access to McConkey's, but Patricia had decided that she was done. A quick pick-me-up on the deck of the Five Way Cafe slopeside off Homerun, however, gave her a fresh burst of energy, and we headed to McConkey's anyway for one last 3,100 vertical-foot run down Tycoon (again, absolutely perfect corn, perfect for carving deep trenches via wide GS turns) and Flat Iron to an absolutely deserted Blanche, where the solitude was a welcome respite from the crowds heading home on Homerun and Treasure Hollow.
Vertical skied: No clue. I screwed up turning the watch log on.
Got home and took the road bike out for the first time this year. Logged only 10 miles, but did it in shorts and a short-sleeved jersey. It was still 69 degrees in the Salt Lake Valley when I went out at 5 pm. I've got that first-day-in-the-saddle pelvic bruising this morning. :-(
The good news is that a storm is moving in. We're already under a winter storm watch, and they're predicting 3-6 inches on the Valley floor and 1-3 feet in the mountains beginning tomorrow afternoon and into Wednesday. I won't be able to get out on Wednesday, but I'm hoping that gate closures will reserve freshies for when I can get up there on Thursday. I'll probably get up there Friday afternoon with the wife for a few turns, then ski the weekend, logging four days this week.
Both Bob Dangerous and Acidchrist called in the a.m. inviting me to join them over at Snowbird, but it's a rare day when my wife actually wants to go skiing, and Park City has tons of intermediate groomers that are perfect for her. Besides, my season pass at PCMR comes with two free "friends and family" lift tickets, and if it's free, it's for me.
Once again we didn't arrive until 12:45 and things were well softened by that point. In fact, most of the Ski Team Ridge runs on the lower mountain are already melted out. No matter, though, there was plenty of perfect corn available on the mid- and upper-mountain for us. Temps were in the low 60s on the mountain under sunny skies.
We rode Payday and Bonanza to ski the groomers underneath Silverlode before stopping at the Snow Hut deck for a fine picnic lunch in the sun. Parley's Park had absolutely perfect three inches of corn over a firm base underfoot. In fact, that was the case for nearly all of the runs we skied, including Temptation off the King Con lift, where we headed for a couple of runs after lunch.
We worked our way back over to Silverlode to gain access to McConkey's, but Patricia had decided that she was done. A quick pick-me-up on the deck of the Five Way Cafe slopeside off Homerun, however, gave her a fresh burst of energy, and we headed to McConkey's anyway for one last 3,100 vertical-foot run down Tycoon (again, absolutely perfect corn, perfect for carving deep trenches via wide GS turns) and Flat Iron to an absolutely deserted Blanche, where the solitude was a welcome respite from the crowds heading home on Homerun and Treasure Hollow.
Vertical skied: No clue. I screwed up turning the watch log on.
Got home and took the road bike out for the first time this year. Logged only 10 miles, but did it in shorts and a short-sleeved jersey. It was still 69 degrees in the Salt Lake Valley when I went out at 5 pm. I've got that first-day-in-the-saddle pelvic bruising this morning. :-(
The good news is that a storm is moving in. We're already under a winter storm watch, and they're predicting 3-6 inches on the Valley floor and 1-3 feet in the mountains beginning tomorrow afternoon and into Wednesday. I won't be able to get out on Wednesday, but I'm hoping that gate closures will reserve freshies for when I can get up there on Thursday. I'll probably get up there Friday afternoon with the wife for a few turns, then ski the weekend, logging four days this week.
