Day 48:
Gorgeous spring days don't get much better than what we enjoyed at Solitude on Saturday, with blue skies and temps into the 50s.
It was Ski Utah's annual Local Media Day, a fun gathering of journalists and PR types from ski areas across the state. We started off with a quick breakfast at the new Moonbeam day lodge (a beautiful building) before heading up the deathly-slow new Moonbeam Quad to head to the race course.
It's a dual GS-style format set up on Main Street, which was rapidly softening in the morning sun. We wanted to get our practice runs in early, for we were only able to time two runs for the competition, but it was slow in getting open and the course finally debuted at 10 am. Waiting for it to open, plus getting in a practice run and a couple of timed runs meant lap after lap on the Apex chair.
Once the race got underway I was introduced to none other than Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. waiting in line for our turns through the gates right in front of me. A genuinely nice guy, and very down-to-earth. My runs were disappointing, but it's all about having fun anyway, right? That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :roll:
We'll be putting together a news item covering the details of the meeting, but the short of it is that Utah will come close, +/- its record 2004-05 winter season of nearly 4 million skier visits. That's impressive, seeing as how last season's record marked a 12% increase fueled in large part by last winter's crappy season in the NW. Lodging bookings at Solitude are up 25%.
After lunch and the speeches, it was back out onto the hill, this time with the Park City Chamber PR director and the PR director for Brian Head. Things off-piste were getting heavy, and our plans to head for the summit were squashed by a gate into Parachute that was closed, so we pretty much stuck to the front side groomers. The Brian Head guy split at about the same time that The Kid arrived at 2:30 pm, and he kept going past the 4 pm closing bell by hiking and repeating a hit in front of the base lodge as I sat with some suds on the rooftop patio.
Solitude will continue ops through Easter Sunday, Apr. 16. Clearly, snow cover won't be an issue. :lol: It was amusing, though, to pop out of the canyon back into the Salt Lake Valley and see the Old Mill golf course fairways filled with folks playing in shorts and short-sleeved polos, only 10 miles from where we had been skiing.
Gorgeous spring days don't get much better than what we enjoyed at Solitude on Saturday, with blue skies and temps into the 50s.
It was Ski Utah's annual Local Media Day, a fun gathering of journalists and PR types from ski areas across the state. We started off with a quick breakfast at the new Moonbeam day lodge (a beautiful building) before heading up the deathly-slow new Moonbeam Quad to head to the race course.
It's a dual GS-style format set up on Main Street, which was rapidly softening in the morning sun. We wanted to get our practice runs in early, for we were only able to time two runs for the competition, but it was slow in getting open and the course finally debuted at 10 am. Waiting for it to open, plus getting in a practice run and a couple of timed runs meant lap after lap on the Apex chair.
Once the race got underway I was introduced to none other than Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. waiting in line for our turns through the gates right in front of me. A genuinely nice guy, and very down-to-earth. My runs were disappointing, but it's all about having fun anyway, right? That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :roll:
We'll be putting together a news item covering the details of the meeting, but the short of it is that Utah will come close, +/- its record 2004-05 winter season of nearly 4 million skier visits. That's impressive, seeing as how last season's record marked a 12% increase fueled in large part by last winter's crappy season in the NW. Lodging bookings at Solitude are up 25%.
After lunch and the speeches, it was back out onto the hill, this time with the Park City Chamber PR director and the PR director for Brian Head. Things off-piste were getting heavy, and our plans to head for the summit were squashed by a gate into Parachute that was closed, so we pretty much stuck to the front side groomers. The Brian Head guy split at about the same time that The Kid arrived at 2:30 pm, and he kept going past the 4 pm closing bell by hiking and repeating a hit in front of the base lodge as I sat with some suds on the rooftop patio.
Solitude will continue ops through Easter Sunday, Apr. 16. Clearly, snow cover won't be an issue. :lol: It was amusing, though, to pop out of the canyon back into the Salt Lake Valley and see the Old Mill golf course fairways filled with folks playing in shorts and short-sleeved polos, only 10 miles from where we had been skiing.
