Apr 8 Easter and Grand Finale on Baldy

Hard to believe that this was our last day of skiing in Utah for the 2012 season. Time sure flies when you're having fun! We started the day at 2:50 am when the alarm went off for us to head to Snowbird for the sunrise Easter service on top of Hidden Peak (the tram summit). Who the heck set the alarm for 2:50 instead of 5:20?? Back to bed and up again at 5:20 to get to the Snowbird tram by 6:00 am. We arrived on the peak at 6:10 am in darkness except for the full moon to the west. Multiple fire pits were blazing and hot chocolate was being served. No sign of the Easter bunny up here!! We watched the sun rise over the Uintas to the east and listened to an inspirational "mountain top" sermon with our "attitudes of gratitude."

Here's how the day started:

After "church" we headed back down the canyon for a nap! This was going to be our rite of passage day on Mt Baldy and we needed to be well rested. By 12:25 pm we were back on the mountain at the top of Sugarloaf lift hitching our skis to our backpacks and readying for the mile hike to the summit of Mt Baldy. Marc Chrusch, a friend and co-worker from Heublein who is now a Salt Lake "local," was guiding us up to the summit so we could ski down Main Chute. I asked him for advice for this little adventure. He replied "don't f--k up"! Hmmm, that was reassuring.

We summited Mt Baldy in under 40 minutes - a piece of cake compared to Tuckerman's in NH! Here's proof that we were on the summit:

Now it was time to put on our skis!! Skiing along the ridge we arrived at the cornice above Main Chute. Fortunately it is a low snow year so the drop into the chute was only 3 feet but the "landing" was close to 50 degrees in slope and looked very firm. I volunteered to be the first to die!! Over the edge I went landing on both feet - half the battle is just getting in and I'd made it. Now I was hoping Marc and Mike would give me enough "space" to not take me out if they screwed up.

We all made it safely down the chute! Yeehawwwwwww! The adrenlin rush is addictive - we just might have to go to Jackson Hole next year to put Corbett's Couloir on our "been there, done that" list too.

In the photo below, Main Chute is the chute furthest to the right on Mt Baldy.

Ski bummin' in 2012 has been a blast. We look forward to our return to NH on Tuesday and re-uniting with all of our friends! Thanks for all of your good wishes for our adventure. Mike and Jean

Apr 7 Grand Finale Picnic!

So back in 1985 a group of us were skiing Snowbird on a bluebird spring day and we had the picnic of a life time on the shoulder of Little Cloud bowl. Of course that was in the day prior to digital cameras so I would have to be back in NH to scan in the photos from that memorable day. We all were sporting bathing suits under our ski clothes and after a few bottles of wine several bikinis emerged along with some bare chests and a few moons from the guys. Well, in honor of our last weekend of skiing in Utah for this season, Marie (who was part of the 1985 gang) suggested that we again picnic.

Although it was a bluebird day, the temps were not quite so springlike, but the wine, appetizers, sandwiches, strawberries and chocolate were incredible. We set out our spread just through the first gate on Rock and Roll heading into Devil's Castle (need we say more???).

Here is a shot of Marie who came prepared for a repeat of the 1985 event.

A few more photos of the gala picnic:

Apr 3 Grand Finale Giant Slalom

Today was the Alta Town League final race. The grand finale was held on Stimulation off the Wildcat chair - a mere 40 degree slope that was solid ICE! What the frig am I doing here at 8 am in the morning?? If I didn't think that I would puke in the starting gate I would have done shots of Jaegermeister at 8 am along with the rest of the racers. Needless to say I provided great entertainment to the racers waiting to race after me. When I finally shoved out of the starting gate (the starter probably thought I had stroked out it took me so long), I took the first gate OK and then said bull sh-t I like my body in one piece and proceeded to ski out of the course, miss the next 5 gates and then jump back into the course on the "flat" half where everyone was hooting and hollering as I careened towards the finish! I was thrilled to be in ONE piece!! Fortunately we had several youngsters that were awesome on the team and "Heather's Mom" team finished 11th out of 24 for the season. I think I will retire from my racing career.

Here are a few shots of the day.

Apr 1 Rockin' Red Canyon

A short distance from Bryce Canyon is Red Canyon where biking is allowed throughout the canyon. We arrived about 10:00 am and saddled up in the midst of snow flurries. Slight confusion in the brain about flurries without skis underfoot, but we managed to naviagate the rock moguls and flurries successfully. The only two people in this canyon made it feel like we were the lone lost survivors of the dinosaur age. The red rocks were GORGEOUS!

Here are some shots of our trek.

Mar 31 Beautiful Bryce Canyon

Since skiing had gotten crusty, we decided on a last minute whim to head to Southern Utah, specifically Bryce Canyon, with our mountain bikes in the car. Booked a room at the Stone Canyon Lodge in Tropic, UT, for the night and we planned to bike in Red Canyon the next day, April 1.

Unbelievable how beautiful southern Utah is! Away from the masses of SLC and out into the wilderness. Bryce Canyon was gorgeous! We arrived late afternoon and stayed until sunset - hiking down into the canyon floor past Thor's Hammer and feeling like we were hiking back millions of years. We're thinking next trip should be with an RV (see photo) so we can visit everyone of the Utah parks, especially Escalante.

Here are the some of the scenes from Bryce Canyon - too bad pictures can't capture the splendor.

Mar 30 Wildlife Quiz

Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake is home to amazing wildlife (Mike and Jean not included)! See how many species you can identify in the photos below.

Mar 30 Bikin' Bison!

Since our days in Utah are limited and spring fever has set in, we decided we better check out the Great Salt Lake today. No better way to do that than to drive out to Antelope Island with two mountain bikes in the car. As soon as we opened the car door you knew immediately the Great Salt Lake was salty! Smelled just like we were at the ocean only with snow covered mountains in the background - the best of all worlds. Sand, beach grass, and water salinity between 25-33 percent! The ocean salinity is only about 5 percent or less. No fishing in these waters, but boy can you float!

Looks alot like BVI!

Even sailboats at the marina. Love how you can ski in the morning and take your Hobe out for a sail in the afternoon.

We encountered amazing wildlife today. The most incredible were the bison grazing along our bike path. Check out the next post for a wildlife identification challenge!

Mar 29 Warranties

We are still here in Utah but with the warranties starting to expire on our body parts - specifically our knees! But w.t.h. at our age 57 ski days and over 600,000 vertical feet is going to take a slight toll. Guess it must be almost time to hang up the skis for this season - heaven forbid. In the past two weeks we have gone from winter to spring to summer back to winter to spring to summer yet again. Which of course turns the snow into New England crap and creates challenging wardrobe decisions (since some of these weather changes occur within a ski day)!

But no one is complaining!! We had a 40 inch dump back on March 18 - 19 - thigh deep "powda" which was so deep that unless you were on 40 degree slopes you did not move! Had to hike DOWN to the lift!! First tracks are soooooo Sweeeeet! Various company arrived shortly after that dump, each with opposing views on the powda - love vs hate. But alas, the warm up occurred within days and we were back to spring conditions. The upside to spring conditions is that there is no rush to jump out of bed in the morning. Arriving at the "hill" by 11:00 is perfect timing for the snow and the Kluks.

So as long as the warranty doesn't wear out on our knees, we are still here hoping for one more snow - before April 9th - the day that we turn into pumpkins and head back east via Southwest airlines. The car has been hijacked by Heather for her summer job in Seattle.

Mar 17 Team "Heather's Mom"

I know several of our followers have been waiting anxiously for this blog entry. Where to begin....yes, at the starting gate, of course! It was Tuesday, March 13th, the third week of the Alta Town Series ski races. I had been recruited under the guise of a needed female for a race team that Jason Koza was organizing at the Alta Lodge. Despite loud objections from both Heather (she was already on another team) and myself, Jason and his persuasive friends some how twisted 80 bucks out of me to be the mature woman on their team! (Note: there is NO handicapping for age in this race league). Only days later did I find out that this group of young racers had officially named their team "Heather's Mom." A little poking at Heather on that one!!

So, I survived the first 2 races - one giant slalom and one slalom - feeling pretty snappy about the fact that I had at least successfully crossed the finish line in both races despite not earning any points for our team! Now here it was race #3 on an extremely windy and chilly morning following a very warm day. If you do the weather "math" you'll calculate that the snow conditions on the race hill were going to be VERY firm! I should have re-thought this entire venture as I stood in the starting gate barely able to stand still as a 40 mph gust hit me broadside. But no, just wanting to get my one run done, I shoved off through the starting wand. The first gate was an oh-shit moment as I realized I had no edges and the course was an ice rink. My mantra: take it easy Jean, turn early and high! Ha, ha, ha, ha!! About the 5th gate another gust of wind, easily 40 mph, nailed me broadside and shockingly blew me so far out of the course there was no chance to make the next gate!! Yeehaw - survival instinct kicked in and I just skied down outside of the course. Oh well, DNF'd (did not finish) that race. I stood at the bottom of race hill watching the next racer in his lycra race suit run the course with little problem (oh, were those ice skates on his feet??).

Now 3 days later on Friday, Alta has "open racing" so you can practice. I thought just maybe getting back in the saddle after my DNF might be a good thing before I have to do a slalom race next Tuesday. In the starting gate I joked with the race attendant that I thought I'd better practice for the town league although it probably wouldn't do much good at my age. As I headed down the course, he chuckled at the obvious lack of talent and then turned to Mike to comment on the fact that I was racing with the town league. Mike set him straight that I had been coerced into the league by a few youngsters at the Alta Lodge. Mr. Race Attendant then shouted OMG - that's HEATHER'S MOM! He even radioed down to the finish shack the news that Heather's mom was in the course. Now I'm really embarrassed!

Bottom line, Jason did recruit some high quality racers for the team so we are slowly moving up in the ranks, no thanks to me. Maybe I should just stick to buying shots for my teammates!

March Moose Madness

One of our missions with the BS's was to have a moose sighting! Barbara was having moose sighting envy and we needed to cure this affliction. So we set off on a snowshoe adventure in Big Cottonwood Canyon in hopes of recreating the moose encounter that Mike and I had back in January. In short course, the coffee Barbara had for breakfast took it's toll and the call of nature could no longer be ignored.  When ya gotta go, ya gotta go, and the snow shoes gotta stay on!

After shoeing for several hours and spotting only a few signs of moose activity we stopped to eat our bag lunch along the trail. Returning hikers passed us and behold announced that there were 2 moose just several hundred yards from where we were lunching! Barbara bolted up and off we went! Yeehaw - her moose envy is cured!