Utah powder

It just kept on snowing from yesterday. You don’t need big blizzards in Utah; you just need it to snow and keep coming. I dozed in bed for not too long, had my breakfast and got to the resort around noon for a great skiing day. The snowflakes were big and perfectly formed. I took pictures of their delicate crystal lattices as they settled on my clothes. I scooped some up to eat as well. Snowflakes like that only form when it’s fairly warm and they made for deep, fluffy powder. I was very comfortable, but the Milky Way candy bar in my pocket froze.

I started the day at The Aspens and worked my way south. The snow was knee-deep there... It was an amazing feeling, like a dream, like riding on a cloud. All day the snow was simply incredible. I was so happy that I could be in a place and time like this to enjoy it. My new ski pants are really good at keeping my feet sealed and dry in the boot. My edges aren’t very sharp and engage softly and slowly, but the wax on my skis had me gliding fast enough that it took me a run to adjust to the speed. From there I went to Tombstone, where I met Isla (one of the coaches, who let me sleep on her couch my first week here) with her private student. I followed them down half a run and she showed me a little off-piste gully reachable from Another World, but it was inconsequential compared to the stuff that I knew was out there for me.

I went up 9990 today to enjoy the powder and steeps in those double-blacks, and went up again to take a photo of the adorable sign in the lift line there. Whatever liftie came up with that joke should get a bonus. I also took photos of the view from the top so you can compare visibility with the cold day. I worked my way all the way over to Dreamcatcher at the very end of the resort, and skied around there a couple of runs. It was practically empty out there.

As I was about to start heading back, I saw a big group of ski instructors heading into the Phantasm Woods where I was going. They were a ski clinic that I’d forgotten was going out today, so I just tagged along and joined them. Peter, who was running it, even took my name at the end to give me training credit for it. They were doing off-piste skiing, and the normally-awful style of my powder skiing improved just from trying to pay attention to it so nobody would laugh at me. We had fun stampeding through the trees and deep snow. Someone suggested that instead of returning by the high-traffic Harmony run we take the new way back, through a run called White Water that leads through Cascade run below it to a new lift named Timberline. White Water had some nice chopped-up powder, and Cascade was just one of those long roads. I practiced my “railing” (short edge turns) on that run and blending various skills I was working on, and at the lift one of the others tapped my pole and praised, “Good turns!”

Most of us cut through Grande to seek still more powder on the way to the Red Pine area. Every run was easier and more enjoyable today with the new snow on it, and I went out at the side of the group to look for untracked bits. Over the course of today I tripped myself in the deep snow maybe three times, and one of them was on that run when I somehow crossed my skis. (The other two were off 9990.) At least I know my bindings are set right to eject me. At the same time, someone else tripped over a fallen tree and tangled himself up much worse, but he got up eventually.

After the group dispersed I still had time for another run down The Aspens and one down The Pines. When you regularly ski a run all season long like The Pines, it becomes a good indicator of the overall snow conditions. It looks and feels different almost every few times I ski it, and it was very nice and fluffy today.

Tomorrow I am assigned to teach Ski Utah, a special program for local school children. They only show up at 9:45AM at the bottom, so I get to sleep in again! I have set my alarm for an extra hour of sleep. I’ll only have those kids for a couple of hours so I’ll have plenty of time to join another off-piste training in the afternoon. I took my work jacket back from the rough where I left it a few days ago, because I will need it at the bottom tomorrow.

I took a chance and skied to Short Cut lift instead of going to the gondola. It’s supposed to close at 4:00PM but fifteen minutes later the lifties still let people on who wanted to ski from there to the bottom. Right at the top of Doc’s Run I encountered someone calling for a ski patrol. They’d come across a snowboarder who was knocked out when they found him, and was sitting there dazed when I got there and took over. He just fell and hit his head on the hardpack snow. I put up my skis in an X just uphill from him to signal an accident, and was about to call Dispatch to summon the ski patrol when someone skied up to us in the red uniform of lift operations and guest services. More importantly he had a radio, so I explained what I knew and he called in a series of radio codes and reported the casualty. He took over waiting with the snowboarder for me so I could ski down. Only Sunrise run, at the very bottom, really had thin cover on it with some grass sticking out. It beats taking the gondola, and it brings me right to the locker room.

I hung around the locker room for a short time to move things between my pockets and sort out some bureaucratic questions, and I caught the 5:00 bus. I was so quick that I even grabbed a seat! I stopped at Wal Mart to buy some things to assemble a care package for my family, and when the next bus came around it was packed, but I managed to squeeze on all right.