Day One: Who are all of these people??
Brighton opened the Utah ski season today with its Majestic and Explorer lifts. Two runs were available from the top of Majestic, plus the bunny slope beneath Explorer.
I pulled into the parking lot at 11:40 a.m., just as they began loading Majestic 20 minutes ahead of schedule.
Surfaces were good quality manmade and cover was plentiful on the open terrain...but so were the people. To say that there's some pent-up demand in town is a dramatic understatement. Brighton was supposedly limiting ticket sales but there's no way to keep passholders away. The season pass pick-up line stretched from the third floor of Brighton Center down the stairwells all the way to the first floor front door at the parking lot. I was surprised to ride the lifts with folks from San Francisco, Wisconsin and even North Carolina who kept their Thanksgiving vacation plans despite our lack of early season snow. I bumped into Greg Blessing in the lift line, but saw no one else who I knew.
After 5 runs I couldn't deal with the 20-minute-plus unmanaged liftlines any more and realizing that I had now brought it down to under $10 a run, I called it a good first day. I'll be at PCMR for their season opening tomorrow, expecting a similar crapshow.
Brighton opened the Utah ski season today with its Majestic and Explorer lifts. Two runs were available from the top of Majestic, plus the bunny slope beneath Explorer.
I pulled into the parking lot at 11:40 a.m., just as they began loading Majestic 20 minutes ahead of schedule.
Surfaces were good quality manmade and cover was plentiful on the open terrain...but so were the people. To say that there's some pent-up demand in town is a dramatic understatement. Brighton was supposedly limiting ticket sales but there's no way to keep passholders away. The season pass pick-up line stretched from the third floor of Brighton Center down the stairwells all the way to the first floor front door at the parking lot. I was surprised to ride the lifts with folks from San Francisco, Wisconsin and even North Carolina who kept their Thanksgiving vacation plans despite our lack of early season snow. I bumped into Greg Blessing in the lift line, but saw no one else who I knew.
After 5 runs I couldn't deal with the 20-minute-plus unmanaged liftlines any more and realizing that I had now brought it down to under $10 a run, I called it a good first day. I'll be at PCMR for their season opening tomorrow, expecting a similar crapshow.
