Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 9

Snowbird

Snowbird, where things are about to get real.

Final day of the trip, and Christina and I are solo! The rest of the party had just departed and Christina and I decided to try Snowbird. The day started out rainy and gross, but the rain quickly turned to snow as we climbed into Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The gondola ride up was super snowy.

We were greeted with near-white-out conditions. I was a little scared, but Christina was fearless so we pressed on.

This is not an exaggeration of the conditions. We could not see. 

Skiing in Mineral Basin was daunting. Christina and I had to follow each other closely to prevent losing each other in the dense screen of snow. The snow was super wet and sticky and the skiing was fantastic. We quickly worked up an appetite.

Food at Snowbird is always fantastic. We ate pizza and brownies because we earned it, dammit.

Conditions were not super conducive to taking lots of photos. One could only expose a hand for so long before camera use became uncomfortable. We had a fantastic rest of the day at Snowbird with the slick snow and dramatic weather.

"I smile so I don't have to think about plunging headlong into the abyss."

We definitely did miss the family, though. We kept them in our thoughts all day!

Après-ski

Well, that was tiring. Time to head home and eat a bunch of eggs!

Leftovers night: omelettes and wine from a box.

It was a fantastic last day of a fantastic trip. We were both very hungry and very tired. Some omelettes hit the spot.

I made her let me take a picture before she could eat. That's fake happiness.

That's it for ski trip 2018. Until next year!

Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 8

Deer Valley

It really is difficult to overstate how beautiful the views are. From the top of Deer Valley Resort

Deer Valley is the fanciest of the fancy pants resorts in the area. Ethan woke up feeling less-than-perfect so Kim, Christina, and I headed to nearby Deer Valley. Carol's condo is significantly closer to Park City and its resorts (Park City Mountain Resort, Deer Valley) than it is to the Cottonwood Canyons (Solitude, Brighton, Snowbird, Alta) and it was nice not having to drive 50 minutes away.

Deer Valley is much bigger than we remembered.

We started skiing quite early, about 10:05, and made our way from the base over to Empire Canyon. Deer Valley was something of a gamble, as Park City is at a much lower altitude than the Cottonwood Canyon resorts and has received markedly less snow this season. But we haven't been in 5 years, as Deer Valley is (pretentiously) a no-snowboard resort so if Benjamin Bowman joins us on the trip, we cannot go. The same goes for Alta, actually, which is why we made sure to go twice.

The top of Empire Mountain

The snow wasn't amazing but it was certainly good enough to reward our gamble. There were some closed trails in Empire Canyon, but there were plenty of open ones to challenge our tired legs. We utilized Empire Express, Lady Morgan Express, and Ruby all morning which afforded us rewarding trips down Orion, Solace, Supreme, Magnet, and Buckeye.

After that, it was time for an early lunch at 11:30 AM so we could all refuel and Christina could warm her numb extremities.

Nothing but the best for Truman the Snake

Kim, Christina, and I dined at Empire Lodge, which easily qualified as the best food of the trip. I got my standard burger and fries, which was fancy, and Kim had an amazing turkey sandwich/salad combo. Christina and I drank more local beer and we coordinated our meet-up with Carol and Ethan. Oh, and we bought some emergency toe warmers for Christina.

Deer Valley Food

By the way, one great aspect of spring skiing is the lack of crowds. Most of the resorts are closing for the season on or about April 8th, so everything is winding down. We enjoyed empty or near-empty slopes for much of the trip.

A typical wait-time for the lift.

We met up with Carol and Ethan at 1:30 PM at the top of Flagstaff Mountain, which is where we took the picture at the top of this post. Ethan was more confident than ever and insisted upon following Christina and me through the trees. He fared better than we did:

(footage of Christina/Alex crash)

We managed to get somewhat off-trail and had a fun adventure through the Deer Valley woods. Christina and I expected the other three members of our party to be cross with us for leading them into difficult terrain, but everyone loved it.

(trail footage)

After our adventures in the woods, we skied almost until closing and, it being the final day of the trip for Carol, Kim, and Ethan, retired to the lodge to put our feet up and enjoy some beers and hot chocolate.

Mission accomplished.

Après-ski

Ski trips come and go, but two things stay the same: (1) we go to Snowbird on the last day and (2) we go to Grubsteak for dinner on the last night of the trip. Well, Christina and I are headed to Snowbird tomorrow after the rest of the party flies back to Maryland so all that's left to do is head to Grubsteak tonight.

Grubsteak is a cowboy-themed steakhouse in beautiful downtown Park City. They serve irresponsibly large cuts of beef and a salad bar that would tempt the most prejudiced carnivore.

Ethan went crazy for the salad bar, which meant more cartoonishly sized prime rib for me.

Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 7

Alta, Part Deux

We had so much fun today we forgot to take pictures! But there will certainly be some GoPro footage here one day in the near future, so don't despair.

Ethan loves Alta so much we decided to head back for round two. Apparently Christina and I just can't get enough of that early morning Utah air, because we again volunteered to get him to morning ski school by 9:15 AM, which meant leaving the condo at 8:30 AM. Ethan was, again, up to the task which made the effort painless. He was also great company on the ride up.

We dropped him off at 9:10 AM and went straight to the lifts, which means we broke yesterday's record for earliest start. We were riding Albion Lift at 9:20 AM, just 5 minutes after it opened. The place was practically empty at that hour and we got some great skiing in.

Alta map, just in case you forgot what it looks like.

We did some Sugarloaf, then some Collins, then some Sugarloaf. I made a questionable decision to take us down a staggeringly difficult run (Glory Gulch) which frustrated and exhausted both of us. Fortunately, this happened at about 11:50 AM, so we used the opportunity to call it a stopping point and retreated to Alf's Restaurant for a bratwurst and beers.

By this time, Carol and Kim had made their way to Alta and they joined us for lunch. They had picked up Ethan from his morning ski school and, after filling our bellies, we headed out for more action. Today was, by far, Ethan's greatest leap forward. He was able to keep up with us easily on some not-trivially-steep blue runs and even tried his hand at some light tree skiing. Very impressive stuff.

We squeezed in a dozen runs, using Supreme and Sugarloaf for the entire afternoon. We skied all the way until closing at 4:30 PM, making today not only the earliest start, but also the longest day. I, for one, was about ready to collapse by the end of it. I slumped into the car with Christina and Ethan and we headed home.

Après-ski

Ethan, Christina, and I stopped by Smith's for some foods, dropped Ethan off, did some boring stuff like laundry and blogging, and went back over to the other condo for dinner.

Apps and math problems.

Carol and Kim also work on math problems with Ethan. Yes, even while on vacation. He's the very picture of the full-time scholar. Christina and I did some prep work, aided along by local beer and boxed wine.

Pizza chefs showing off their homemade pizzas.

We had a reprise of homemade pizzas, as they were such a hit the first time. For anyone reading this who wants to plan a ski trip on a budget: homemade pizza is a great option. Each pizza works out to like $2 and doesn't take more than 5 minutes of hands-on time.

Mother and daughter. Aww

Ethan would later report that Alta 2 was his favorite day yet. He really did make some huge strides, which you'll get to see in tomorrow's efforts at Deer Valley!

Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 6

Brighton, Part Trois

Can you tell which resort is our favorite?

Brighton. It's obviously Brighton. Carol, Christina, and Kim on the lift.

Christina and I were up early and ready to hit the slopes, so we left alone while Carol, Kim, and Ethan caught up on their beauty rest.

Everyone knows the best part about skiing is shoving your feet into ski boots in the morning.

The two of us boarded Crest Express at 10:05 AM, which means today counts as the earliest start yet for the trip (and maybe the earliest start to a ski day in our history). Having recently snowed, we were excited to conquer some fresh powder. It really was a beautiful day. One of our first runs was a black diamond, Wren Hollow, and I had to stop and take in the tranquility of the scene. There was not a breeze in the trees and we were practically the only ones on the mountain, so it was quiet like only a remote mountain scene can be.

(future site of GoPro footage)

After a good seven or eight runs, we opted to take an early (for us) lunch break, which worked out perfectly because Carol, Kim, and Ethan had by then made their way up Big Cottonwood Canyon and they joined us for a meal. We had some tall beers, chili cheese fries, and chicken tenders. One of the cardinal rules of skiing is that you're allowed to eat whatever you want, in whatever quantities you want.

After lunch, we made our way up Snake Creek Express for a rambunctious outing. Today was my best day of the trip and I made sure to dive into the woods for plenty of bobbing and weaving through the trees.

Ethan and I ride together whenever possible.

I even managed to squeeze in a double black diamond for the first time on this trip (Hard Coin), which was as terrifying as it was terrifying. But I survived to ski another day.

Après-ski

At this point in the trip, we're feeling fairly wrung out and abused so Christina, Ethan and I treated ourselves to a soak in the Powderwood hot tub. While enjoying the bubbles and restorative powers of hot water, we made some new friends: two ten-year-old ski buddies named Eli and Elena and Elena's mother Cate. We shared slope stories, discussed video games, and the finer points of elementary school math curricula. Their group typically skis at Deer Valley and we hope to run into them if we opt to go there later in the week.

One of our new "après" routines is playing the board game Pandemic, which we did today. Very fun, except that we lost and the world was destroyed by outbreaks. Can't win them all, I suppose. For dinner we had fried cod, salad, and roasted vegetables. Ethan helped with the prep, as usual.

Ethan grapples with the hazards of battering fish with one's bare hands.

Christina and Ethan treated us to some custom brownies (they baked Reese's peanut butter eggs into them) and we watched some GoPro footage before calling it a day. What a great trip.

Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 5

Brighton, part deux

We had so much fun the first time, we just had to go back for more. We spent our 4th day of skiing at Brighton again.

Feelin' pretty good about ski school.

Urged on by Christina and me, Kim and Ethan agreed to start their mornings about an hour earlier so Ethan could be dropped off at ski school by 10:15 AM. That meant getting ready to leave the condo by 9 AM, and it went off without a hitch. Carol opted for a well-deserved day of rest, so she stayed at the condo.

We dropped Ethan off right on time and made our way through the woods to Millie Express.

(insert GoPro footage here)

The conditions early on were...not great. Very icy. I got to do my favorite run in Utah (Evergreen) but even that failed to satisfy, as the path was icy and bare in spots. Happily, things started looking up late-morning as it started to snow! Just light flurries at first, but it held promise. We picked Ethan up from school at 12:30 and headed to lunch.

Ethan got to eat an actual crabby patty. So lucky. We had an Alpine burger (w/onion rings) and Moab beers while Kim had a hot pastrami sandwich.

What started off as light flurries eventually gave way to a wet, heavy snow. The three of us hopped on Explorer for a postprandial warm-up, then Majestic, then Crest Express.

Brighton is best.

Ethan bravely joined us for some blue slope runs off of Crest Express. His ski-schooling was really starting to show and he impressed us with his increased top speed. He got stuck on the slopes once or twice, but recovered and still did great.

What wasn't great was Kim's boot. On one of our afternoon runs, she started losing control on an easy slope, which is remarkably uncharacteristic of her. She's easily the best skier in our group and never falls. We quickly identified the issue:

The foot is supposed to stay inside the boot.

So Kim headed down to rent an emergency pair while Christina and I took Ethan on some more runs. After she obtained her replacement equipment, Christina took Ethan down for some more runs off of Majestic and Kim and I skied our tails off. The fresh powder over on the Snake Creek runs was exquisite and we tried to fit as much in as possible.

Very successful day.

We went home, rested for a bit, and then went to Red Rock Brewery for a very large dinner. I'm sure we did some more stuff, but honestly I'm exhausted so I'm going to end here. Hooray for skiing!

P.S. It was really cold today.

Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 4

Solitude

Solitude is riding the lift solo. While dressed like a bunny.

Happy Easter! For our fourth day of skiing we headed to Solitude mountain in Big Cottonwood Canyon, right next to Brighton. It should surprise no one that Christina and Ethan wore bunny ears.

Who wore it better?

Ethan was due for another day of ski school, so Christina and I broke off from the fluffle to try our paws on the Eagle Express lift.

How many things can she fit on her helmet?

It was a nice, mushy day of skiing. I will update this blog in the future with GoPro footage, so check back! We skied a nice long "morning" session (really about 11:30 AM until 1:30 PM) until we decided we wanted a modest midday, mid-mountain meal.

Lamb curry poutine at the Roundhouse. Just a light snack.

From there we crossed the mountain for some runs off of Apex Express and Summit Express. Again, this will be way better when there's actual video footage here, so be sure to check back. Oh, and here's a map so you know what I'm actually talking about:

Sol-i-tude.

We reunited with Kim and Ethan as they were on their way down Little Dolly. Ethan was fairly exhausted from Ski School and had a somewhat trying experience getting down the mountain, but he turned it around and made the descent easily. By the time he made it back to the car he was already talking about where he wanted to go on Day 5. One thing is for sure: everyone was tired after today's activities.

Après-ski

Christina and I dropped everyone off, showered and did laundry, and headed back over to the condo for dinner and a game of Pandemic. The dinner, glazed salmon and roasted asparagus was fantastic (again, Ethan contributed to the meal prep and, again, we forgot to take pictures).

I found this picture on the internet, but I assure you: ours looked equally scrumptious.

Pandemic was...protracted. It was fun, but we spent most of the time re-learning the rules. We did, however, easily win the game. With our rediscovered familiarity with the rules and flow of the game, tomorrow's Pandemic will be faster, and even more fun. 

Just look at that view, courteous of Christina. Thanks for reading!

Park City Ski Trip 2018: Day 3

Alta

For the first time in several years, we headed to Alta Mountain, where snowboarders are not allowed. Ethan was due for another day of lessons so Carol and Kim stayed with him while Christina and I ventured up Sugarloaf Lift.

Strike a pose.

Early in the day, the snow was fairly icy, which eventually precipitated a nasty fall down the mountain for Alex and Christina - especially Christina. She bounced back pretty quickly, however, and we kept on.

Alta. Is good.

We stopped for lunch at Alf's Restaurant mid-mountain and had a reuben and beers. For the second straight day, it was nice enough to eat outside!

Nothing helps one recover like beer.

Still on our own, we did a few more hours of runs off of the Collins lift. The snow improved later in the day and we managed to pack in 8 or 9 total runs.

Tragically, Truman was blocked from view by the camera.

After skiing our tails off, we met up with Carol, Kim, and Ethan. Ethan impressed us all with his major improvement, after just two days of instruction. He's going to be real good, real soon.

Après-Ski

After thoroughly skiing ourselves to exhaustion, we headed home for some homemade pizzas and the Kansas-Villanova Final Four matchup. The former were fantastic (so fantastic we ate them before thinking to take a picture) and the latter was a Wildcat rout. That's all we'll say about that.