Park City, UT 2/28/16

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Day 50: Hello spring.

Warm sunshine is welcome -- just not in February, thank you very much.

My old college friend Stephanie arrived in Park City yesterday. We haven't seen each other since we were both college sophomores, so we made plans to ski together today and catch up on what's been going on for the past 30 years.

Stephanie didn't start skiing until less than 10 years ago, so today was spent exploring low-speed blue groomers at the newly united PCMR to give her a sense of the layout of the place. After a couple of firm and fast runs on my own, we met up at the coffee shop in Legacy Lodge and loaded Crescent.



We dropped down to Silverlode, but the line was much too long for me to tolerate, so we instead walked right onto the new Quicksilver gondola to the former Canyons Resort side. PCMR felt busier to me than it has in past seasons, likely attributable to the attraction of the new "largest resort" tag and the inclusion of the Vail Resorts Epic Pass. Perhaps due to its proximity to the new Miners Camp restaurant and the new gondola, Silverlode seems to be bearing the brunt of this increased traffic. Regardless, there was hardly anyone loading Quicksilver, and before we knew it we were standing atop a new landing zone on the crest of lower Pinecone Ridge.

The north-facing runs below the ridgetop midstation were still rather slick. It didn't take long for the intense sunshine to work its magic, and anything with even a hit of southerly exposure quickly transformed to mushy corn even though runs with a northerly tilt remained winter-like.

We made it as far north as Red Pine Lodge, where we grabbed a quick lunch on the rooftop patio before heading back south towards Park City.


Looking down at the loading area of the new Quicksilver Gondola at its Canyons end.

By the time we got back to Silverlode the line was still healthy, but far more manageable.


Silverlode

We took a lap on McConkey's to show her the view stretching from Guardsman Pass to the city of Heber, and another down the Town Runs to show her how to reach Main Street before calling it a day at PCMR at 3 p.m. as she had little gas left in the tank. I had hoped to finish up the day with a lap or two on Collins at Alta, but I would've arrived at 4 p.m., the same time that Sima had to leave to prepare for his evening flight to Detroit. As it seemed that no one else would load last chair, I abandoned that plan as I crossed Parley's Summit en route home.
 
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