It was VERY VERY VERY cold. Now, we like to ski, but not that much! We slept in until about 9:30. We had decided that we would drive the hour over to Snowbird today because it would be an hour later and an hour warmer when we got there. Also it is supposed to snow Tuesday so we will ski closer to home that day. Tomorrow we are going to ski Solitude. Today we skied Snowbird. When we got into the car it was -5 degrees! Ahhhh… but it was sunny. We took our time. We even ventured over to this really cool curvy road into the mountains. It turns out to be this VERY exclusive gated neighborhood. We turned around and came back down. We did take some nice pictures though. We cruised on over to Snowbird. It was a very nice drive, clear bright sunshine, no traffic, and the gps knew where we were going. We got there and we were immediately confused as to where to go and what to do. We managed to ask several people where to get tickets and the lodge and so forth. We had to take a shuttle to the main lodge. The good news is that the temp got all the way to 20 degree in the bright sun. the bad news is that the mountain reported 7 degrees. But no wind. We managed to get our tickets and the ticket guy told us where to ski. I dropped my skis in a rack so we could change and I turned around and Marlo was nowhere to be found… She had disappeared on me before so I figured that she had done it again. I tried to think of where she might have gone. I went to the second floor and looked in the café. I went to the first floor and looked in the locker area. I finally went to the place where I had last seen her. I was pretty peeved at this point. Well it turns out that she never went anywhere and I was the one who disappeared…. Marlo, not so happy. Opps… sorry…
We got a locker and I was chatting with some guy that was familiar with the mountain. He gave us the opposite advise about skiing and turned out to be SO right! We had an AWESOME day of skiing. We took the tram to the top and went to the sunny side of the mountain. There were still lots of powder left from the day before. I even managed to cut some new tracks. We got off the tram and Marlo was a little intimidated. I hid that fact. This was a big place with some serious slopes… Marlo wanted to stick to the blues. I wanted to do a little more. We separated on the trek over to the back side. I ended up running into a bunch of cliff warning signs… ahhh! And I forgot my cell phone… I managed to survive. Good thing. It was the first run! We then took the lift up to the top of the back side. There were two ways down. One around the blues into the shade and one big black trail back down to the lift. It did not look that steep until we got to the top. IT WAS STEEP!!! I sucked it up and down I went. I took it easy and managed to get down without incident. I met Marlo at the bottom. We had walky-talkies so we could communicate. It worked out well, because we could hear them though our jackets. I would just tell her to look left or right and there we were. One time we were really far apart but she could still hear me without the radio… she just yell that she can hear me. Another time she was sitting just below a ridge and some nice guy just pointed to us…
So my second run down the steep mountain did not go quite as well… see my bindings are not quite tight enough. Some say that I don’t ski with much finesse the rest say that I don’t ski with any… I have strong legs. Stronger then my release setting. I pull out sometimes when I could keep going. Crash number one… not too bad the ski just let go. I climb back up and without much trouble I get then back on. Well I am feeling pretty good about now and decide to push a bit… not my best plan… I come cranking down and make a hard cut. The powder sucks up my skis and decides not to let them go. I launch out of my bindings. I don’t twist out, I don’t go forward out, I pop straight out of both skis at the same time. I fly straight down the mountain in a lovely arch that puts my head well below my feet. Fortunately my head gets driven into the snow all the way up to my shoulders and my feet continue the arch on down the mountain. At no time did my body bend at all. This was all done completely stretched out. I may have yelled and obscenity just before my head was driven into the snow. At the culmination of my perfect round out, I landed on my feet just about two body lengths below my skis. I climbed back up and got my skis back on. It was a spectacular fall.
Apparently, Marlo had decided to try out the crashing thing that run as well, so we could compare stories at the lift. Turns out that she ended up chasing her helmet down the slope a ways.
It turned out not to be terribly cold. We were well dressed and managed to stay warm enough. Of course I sweated and got cold and hot and my fingers froze a couple of time. We still managed to have a great day. We went to the warming hut before our decent. They did not even have a map in the place…. We skied down, got the shuttle and got back to our car.
We decided to go back to the Spur to get some buffalo ribs and find out what happened to Scuba. She ended up eating and drinking and trying to get the bar to pay for her, but she ended up paying and going on her way. She made an impression, because the bartender that we talked to was not the one that was there… the ribs were good! We cruised some shops and talk to an artist Gary Johnson. He does some really detailed work. We have to look him up. Marlo bought a card from him.
Then we went to the Mart. And got some stuff. We got home and saw a bunch of people in our hot tub. We decide to check it out. It was -3 degrees out… but hey other people were in there. Well the heaters could not keep up and the water was not hot. We froze! Home to a nice hot shower. We got the mummy movie at red box and managed to get the dvd player working. The tv was not even a stereo tv so we heard the movie from the right…
Off to bed.
Tomorrow we ski Solitude. EVERYONE says… ahhh Solitude you will like that so we are ready. Watching the weather channel… snow tomorrow! Tuesday we ski the canyons…