Marc Guido
New member
I opted to escape the haze of this week's slight inversion in the Salt Lake Valley and take a couple of lunch hour runs at Solitude.
On the way up they were cleaning up a nifty little accident at Dogwood in BCC. One downhill vehicle had lost it on black ice (the road was particularly slick today) and spun 180 degrees into the oncoming lane. A second vehicle struck it, propelling both down over the bank and into Big Cottonwood Creek. Moments later, a third vehicle spun out on the same black ice and joined the first two for a swim. Lively! (The story at http://www.ksl.com/?sid=744281&nid=148 includes video.)
I was short on time, and a Honeycomb lap requires three lift rides, so I opted instead to explore a bit off of Summit into areas that I'm not too familiar with, becoming acquainted with gates and the terrain that they access. I ended up descending via Headwall Forest, which was tracked out but has adequate cover now. Also of note is that there's now enough following this week's storm to open the Parachute gate in addition to the Honeycomb gate. Fantasy and Navarrone remain closed, but the Highway to Heaven traverse is open and things looked good out there. I wasn't carrying avi gear today, though, so I remained inbounds.
It was a short day, but it's just as well as I couldn't get dialed in today. I monkeyed around with the settings of my boot buckles and instantly regretted doing so. I just couldn't get into the vibe today, and didn't feel like I made a good turn all day. Oh, well...it sure beat sitting in a fast food joint for lunch!
On the way up they were cleaning up a nifty little accident at Dogwood in BCC. One downhill vehicle had lost it on black ice (the road was particularly slick today) and spun 180 degrees into the oncoming lane. A second vehicle struck it, propelling both down over the bank and into Big Cottonwood Creek. Moments later, a third vehicle spun out on the same black ice and joined the first two for a swim. Lively! (The story at http://www.ksl.com/?sid=744281&nid=148 includes video.)
I was short on time, and a Honeycomb lap requires three lift rides, so I opted instead to explore a bit off of Summit into areas that I'm not too familiar with, becoming acquainted with gates and the terrain that they access. I ended up descending via Headwall Forest, which was tracked out but has adequate cover now. Also of note is that there's now enough following this week's storm to open the Parachute gate in addition to the Honeycomb gate. Fantasy and Navarrone remain closed, but the Highway to Heaven traverse is open and things looked good out there. I wasn't carrying avi gear today, though, so I remained inbounds.
It was a short day, but it's just as well as I couldn't get dialed in today. I monkeyed around with the settings of my boot buckles and instantly regretted doing so. I just couldn't get into the vibe today, and didn't feel like I made a good turn all day. Oh, well...it sure beat sitting in a fast food joint for lunch!
