Despite a lack of natural snow and fickle temperatures making it hard to make snow, The Canyons and Deer Valley Resort were both able to open this weekend. On Friday, I took a few hours off from work to enjoy some early runs at The Canyons. I rode up the gondola, over the brown landscape and exited at Red Pine Lodge into a wonderland of man-made snow. I have to admit that I was surprised. I was impressed at the coverage, but also the quality of snow The Canyons was able to produce despite the less than ideal conditions.
Saturday and Sunday we were treated to VIP passes at Deer Valley's Annual Celebrity Skifest to benefit the US Ski Team and Bobby Kennedy's Water Keeper Alliance. We had a nice dinner friday night at the Silver Lake Lodge and tent access throughout the weekend at the finish line of the Celebrity race course. The food was excellent and yes, there was free beer thanks to the primary sponsors, CBS. The race will air on CBS, Sunday 12.21.08 at 5pm eastern before the Rose Bowl. If you watch closely you'll see us in the background of the finish-line interviews. I have a beard and red goggles. Sarah's in black sunglasses.
Celebrity sightings from the weekend include: Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale, Picaboo Street, Joe Pantaliono, Larry David, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Matthew Modine, Tommy Moe, The Maher Brothers, and a bunch more. We opted not to take very many pictures of them because we didn't want to lose our free beer priveledges. But a good time was had by all.
The morning temperatures are in the teens now and we're ready to start getting our schralp on. The golf and mountain-biking seasons are dwindling, the sun sets early, and we've had a few dustings on top of the hills. So dear Winter, bring it on. Let's do this!
Saturday was one of those perfect spring days. As the afternoon festivities approached at the Canyons, the place just got sunnier and warmer. When Sarah and I showed up at the contestant area, we bumped into our buddy, Chris Petty who hooked us up with VIP passes for the winners circle. We hung out for a bit and caught up with Canyons locals, but once the event kicked off we were totally focussed on mayhem and nonsense. The crowd was thick and costumes were intense. Have a look.
We were also psyched to hook up with our friends, Chris, Richie, Max, Liz, Regina, Ahdena, Eddie, Brian, and Katie. But what really sucked is that after the "festivities" I was left with the most ridiculous sunburn. My forehead immediately blistered up and started weeping by Sunday night. But I deserve it for not remembering my sunblock! D'OH!
This weekend was a blast from the past as a bunch of my old high school buddies converged on Salt Lake from across the country. The occasion was Chad Knowles' Bachelor Party. Two ski condos in Sandy played host to several Berwickians (Chad, Peter Clarke, Tom Beattie, Brett Richer, Chris Knowles and Pat Knowles) and various other really cool guys from Middlebury and Vail — about 14 guys in all, armed with alcohol, testosterone, and a raging passion for powder. They were here to ski hard and party harder. One theme of the weekend was their creative facial hair competition, the winner of which is anybody's guess. They also spent some quality time in a dirty hot tub which I dubbed "New England Man Chowder".
I met up with the crew Friday night as they were already well on their way to long night. I decided it might be best to crash on a spare futon downstairs, much to Tom Beattie's dismay as I snored him out of the room. The next day, we hit Snowbird for some great turns despite less than ideal snow conditions following 5 straight sunny days (yuck). The group of guys turned out to be pretty hard core and the pace was intense. That night, it was straight back to partying. I'll leave it at that. But I managed to sneak back to Patty and Gary's house for a much needed night of sleep.
Sunday morning — POW! The forecast was conservative, calling for perhaps up to 8 inches. Instead, we woke up to about 16 inches of fresh Utah powder. The group was ready by 6:30 am. From the first chair it was an epic day. There was hooting and hollering all over the mountain, and the large group quickly dispersed, invoking the "No friends on a powder day" rule. But Pete Clarke, one of my oldest friends in the world stuck with Sarah and me. I didn't grow up skiing, so it's a relatively new form of bonding for these two boys from Epping, NH. It was great catching up with Pete and charging fresh lines with him. We even egged each other on to huck a cliff or two.
Overall it was a fantastic weekend and I'm just glad no one was seriously hurt. Good times.
Wow. This week was crazy. we got 60+ inches since Monday (today is Friday, BTW) and finally I couldn't take it any more. I had to get some runs in this morning at The Canyons and it was the most amazing day you can imagine. Tough to say if it was the best ever, especially since Sarah wasn't there and I had to cut it short for work. But Damn. I'm just speechless. Face-shots all day long...almost every turn in fact. Max snapped a nice action shot of me in Silverado Bowl under the Golden Eagle Lift, a slow double on the front side running parallel to the Gondola. I may have had more runs if i skied a different lift but it's ok. That spot is empty and I can't imagine a better place to ski, in-bounds. Wow. Again.
I've been hearing various murmurs about a potentially huge storm system moving in this weekend. They say it should start tonight and last into Monday with totals anywhere from 1-5 feet. That's exciting and I'm starting to believe it. So far: nothing. But I'm being patient. People tell me there is such a thing as TOO much snow. I'd like to see for myself. We're planning on taking tomorrow off to take the dogs out for a long hike and pick up our Sundance Locals tickets. But Sunday should be awesome. We'll keep ya posted.
It's been over a month since we've had any significant snowfall in the Wasatch Range. But we did get a "dusting" last night. As you probably know by now, when there's a dusting in Heber, we expect to see up to a foot or more in various parts of the adjacent mountains. Early reports from The Canyons this morning show up to 8 inches. Alta has yet to check in, but our friend Tracy said it was "dumping" in the Salt Lake valley last night. On their respective commutes, she and Sarah both witnessed the vehicular mayhem typical of an early season storm, as people remind themselves how to drive in the snow...or into a ditch as it may be. Anyway, here's hoping this storm builds some momentum and sets us up nicely to receive another blast on Friday. The resorts have sheepishly started opening, offering mostly man-made snow, but so far this Fall has been stingy. The natives are restless at best. So if you experience any discourteous behavior from your Utah-based compatriots, please don't take it personally. Just pray for snow.
It started snowing around dinner time last night. It wasn't very cold out so it was a nice surprise. I was surprised to see it accumulate. When we woke up this morning there were actually a couple inches outside. The thing about Heber is that our elevation (about 6,000 feet) puts us below the snow-line for most storms. So when we get any kind of accumulation here, you know it's probably pounding at 9-11,000 feet in the mountains a few miles away. Needless to say, we're excited about ski season.
For a map of the Heber Valley, click here.
