Sharon
New member
I had planned to write a report for each day of my Utah trip and insert my pix here, however, it was way too much work, as I skied 8 days and took 200 photos. Lots of editing and too much work to resize pix. So if you want to see my pix, follow this link
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sheller19 ... EBrxTc1M1w
or this one
http://tinyurl.com/dk9sp
I finally got Day One's report into text. Here it is...
Day One ? 2/4 Snowbasin
Saturdays are quite busy at most ski areas, so we avoided the well-trafficked Cottonwood Canyons and headed north to Snowbasin where we were able to park in the 2nd row at 9am. Snowbasin is expansive, with a nearly 3000? vertical drop and has fast lifts, including 2 high speed gondolas. If it even was crowded, you would not know it except for the line at the gondola at the main base area.
It was a bit windy, so the new snow from the previous day was blown all over and drifted. We skied everything from hardpack to fresh windblown. It was an acclimation day for me, to the altitude, the dry snow and to my ski boots, which I had hardly worn in the previous 6 weeks. I had been skiing 700 vertical feet with a 10 minute lift ride in NY mostly in telemark boots since Xmas, so my alpine boots caused my feet to ache after the first 1000 feet of the nearly 3000 vertical feet of each run. Off-piste was substantially steeper than what I?d been skiing in January and mostly tracked and bumped once off the steepest faces. That day we only used the groomers to get to the expert terrain. The suspects included Frank (aka Acid Christ), Jordy, Pam, Amy and Paul Clemente. The runs were wonderfully long, sometimes taking us nearly 45 minutes, with stops to catch our breath, regroup, photo ops etc. Lift lines were nearly non-existent, except for the gondola at the base area in the morning, though it moves rather fast, loading 8 people at a time. After 2 runs off the Jean Paul Quad we took the gondola from the base lodge. When we unloaded, we heard a loud bang from above us. Ski patrol was throwing bombs to release the cornices on the cliffs above. We witnessed a few small slides. Then we headed over to the Strawberry area for a few runs. We spotted some nice, lightly tracked, steep slopes to skier?s right, so we headed over to the Moonshine Canyon. The views were awesome and the skiing was fine. The snow started off soft, but got stiffer as we descended into the canyon requiring additional attention. Pam was ripping up this canyon below me. At the very end her legs were beat and she caught an edge, which twisted her ankle and sent her into a ditch. She was in pain and unable to ski out. Our first day of our vacation and she gets injured was a real bummer, though Pam had a smile on her face through most of it. Lucky for Pam we had our own personal ski patroller with us as well as our cell phones. We called 911 to request to be connected to Snowbasin Ski Patrol. They asked a lot of questions about her condition and said they were sending an ambulance. I told them we did not need an ambulance, we just needed ski patrol to send a sled to get her off the mountain and figure out what damage was done. (We learned our lesson?next time we will call 411 to get the number of ski patrol. 911 had sent an ambulance from Ogden even though we told them not to and the driver was pissed that he did not have anyone to take to the hospital.) After about 20 minutes (no one had even skied down that canyon during that time) a snowmobile showed up towing a sled and ski patroller. The ski patroller seemed a little inexperienced, so Frank took over unloaded the sled and got Pam splinted. The 2 of them packed her into the sled and took her down to the clinic. When the rest of us got to the lift, we had found the lift closed due to wind, so we had to ride a snowmobile back to the main area. The snowmobile guys took us for quite a ride.
Once we got to the clinic, Pam had ice on her leg and was waiting to be x-rayed. There was a guy in the room with a dislocated shoulder. He was extremely unhappy and in a great deal of pain. We tried to keep him distracted while we waited with Pam. As the subject turned to food, and it seemed like it would be a while longer before the doctor got to Pam, she sent us to the lodge to get some grub. Ok, not grub, let?s say fine healthy cuisine in a chandeliered dining area with comfy stuffed tall backed chairs, wood tables and fine antiques. The food was fabulous, with actual silverware and large ceramic plates. Not only was the food fantastically delicious and healthy, it was not really that much more expensive. The lodges at Snowbasin are to die for. They are stone and log construction and are really decked out inside with antiques, chandeliers and nice Persian style carpets. The sofas in the lounge area are very comfy and have nice throw pillows. This was not a terrible place for Pam to spend the rest of the day with her foot on the coffee table with a bag of ice and plenty of medication.
As we were finishing lunch Pam came in with the results of her x-rays. Good news. Just a bad sprain. There was great hope that she would be able to ski in a day or 2 and her vacation was not over.
The rest of us went back out for a few more runs. I was beat and decided to go in earlier than the rest of the group. Afterall, I had 7 more days of skiing ahead and a powder day in the forecast for the morning. These folks live in Utah and ski nearly every day, so it was OK that I didn't keep up the whole day. I figured I had best listen to my body and preserve it for the week ahead. I joined Pam on the comfy sofa until the group came in an hour later.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sheller19 ... EBrxTc1M1w
or this one
http://tinyurl.com/dk9sp
I finally got Day One's report into text. Here it is...
Day One ? 2/4 Snowbasin
Saturdays are quite busy at most ski areas, so we avoided the well-trafficked Cottonwood Canyons and headed north to Snowbasin where we were able to park in the 2nd row at 9am. Snowbasin is expansive, with a nearly 3000? vertical drop and has fast lifts, including 2 high speed gondolas. If it even was crowded, you would not know it except for the line at the gondola at the main base area.
It was a bit windy, so the new snow from the previous day was blown all over and drifted. We skied everything from hardpack to fresh windblown. It was an acclimation day for me, to the altitude, the dry snow and to my ski boots, which I had hardly worn in the previous 6 weeks. I had been skiing 700 vertical feet with a 10 minute lift ride in NY mostly in telemark boots since Xmas, so my alpine boots caused my feet to ache after the first 1000 feet of the nearly 3000 vertical feet of each run. Off-piste was substantially steeper than what I?d been skiing in January and mostly tracked and bumped once off the steepest faces. That day we only used the groomers to get to the expert terrain. The suspects included Frank (aka Acid Christ), Jordy, Pam, Amy and Paul Clemente. The runs were wonderfully long, sometimes taking us nearly 45 minutes, with stops to catch our breath, regroup, photo ops etc. Lift lines were nearly non-existent, except for the gondola at the base area in the morning, though it moves rather fast, loading 8 people at a time. After 2 runs off the Jean Paul Quad we took the gondola from the base lodge. When we unloaded, we heard a loud bang from above us. Ski patrol was throwing bombs to release the cornices on the cliffs above. We witnessed a few small slides. Then we headed over to the Strawberry area for a few runs. We spotted some nice, lightly tracked, steep slopes to skier?s right, so we headed over to the Moonshine Canyon. The views were awesome and the skiing was fine. The snow started off soft, but got stiffer as we descended into the canyon requiring additional attention. Pam was ripping up this canyon below me. At the very end her legs were beat and she caught an edge, which twisted her ankle and sent her into a ditch. She was in pain and unable to ski out. Our first day of our vacation and she gets injured was a real bummer, though Pam had a smile on her face through most of it. Lucky for Pam we had our own personal ski patroller with us as well as our cell phones. We called 911 to request to be connected to Snowbasin Ski Patrol. They asked a lot of questions about her condition and said they were sending an ambulance. I told them we did not need an ambulance, we just needed ski patrol to send a sled to get her off the mountain and figure out what damage was done. (We learned our lesson?next time we will call 411 to get the number of ski patrol. 911 had sent an ambulance from Ogden even though we told them not to and the driver was pissed that he did not have anyone to take to the hospital.) After about 20 minutes (no one had even skied down that canyon during that time) a snowmobile showed up towing a sled and ski patroller. The ski patroller seemed a little inexperienced, so Frank took over unloaded the sled and got Pam splinted. The 2 of them packed her into the sled and took her down to the clinic. When the rest of us got to the lift, we had found the lift closed due to wind, so we had to ride a snowmobile back to the main area. The snowmobile guys took us for quite a ride.
Once we got to the clinic, Pam had ice on her leg and was waiting to be x-rayed. There was a guy in the room with a dislocated shoulder. He was extremely unhappy and in a great deal of pain. We tried to keep him distracted while we waited with Pam. As the subject turned to food, and it seemed like it would be a while longer before the doctor got to Pam, she sent us to the lodge to get some grub. Ok, not grub, let?s say fine healthy cuisine in a chandeliered dining area with comfy stuffed tall backed chairs, wood tables and fine antiques. The food was fabulous, with actual silverware and large ceramic plates. Not only was the food fantastically delicious and healthy, it was not really that much more expensive. The lodges at Snowbasin are to die for. They are stone and log construction and are really decked out inside with antiques, chandeliers and nice Persian style carpets. The sofas in the lounge area are very comfy and have nice throw pillows. This was not a terrible place for Pam to spend the rest of the day with her foot on the coffee table with a bag of ice and plenty of medication.
As we were finishing lunch Pam came in with the results of her x-rays. Good news. Just a bad sprain. There was great hope that she would be able to ski in a day or 2 and her vacation was not over.
The rest of us went back out for a few more runs. I was beat and decided to go in earlier than the rest of the group. Afterall, I had 7 more days of skiing ahead and a powder day in the forecast for the morning. These folks live in Utah and ski nearly every day, so it was OK that I didn't keep up the whole day. I figured I had best listen to my body and preserve it for the week ahead. I joined Pam on the comfy sofa until the group came in an hour later.