Jan 31 Island Pond Ski Team

In case we failed to mention previously, Mike and I have been officially designated as the Island Pond Ski Team from Washington, NH, by a subset of the WLA directorship. We take this designation very seriously and hope we are accurately representing the skiing talent and clean living of team membership. At our very first competition today, we scored a victory at Alta's Sitzmark!

The photos below illustrate the seriousness of this competition. We had to recruit two additional team members for the event. The team members from left to right are: Heather Kluk, "Mad" Mike Kluk, "Mean" Jean Kluk, and Marie Corbin. No Massholes were allowed to compete despite their team sponsorship. Please note that the "equipment" includes one vintage ski, 4 Bode Miller shot glasses (how New Hampshire appropriate) and Maker's Mark!

Here's a little victory dance!!

Jan 30 Sundance-ing

So we took the weekend off from torpedoing our bodies downhill. Who would have thought fighting gravity could take such a toll! Saturday was a sleep-in, do nothing except laundry kind of day. But on Sunday, in keeping with our age, we decided to go for a Sunday drive! No, Mike doesn't wear a driver's cap yet, but just wait till he turns 60!

We headed to Sundance Resort, original home of the Sundance Film Festival, and current home of my very first movie star infatuation. Oh, my heart was beating fast at the mere thought of a Robert Redford sighting. The only sightings of course were the RR photos on the walls of the lodge. It was a pretty neat place, wonderful rustic character compared to Alta/Snowbird and a real focus on the arts. We brought back lots of real estate brochures just in case we win powerball. I'm surprised Mitt doesn't buy a place there with his Swiss bank account.

We also checked out the Nordic ski center at Sundance which has a great reputation according to TUNA (The Utah Nordic Alliance). It looks awesome! Nestled up in the mountains and forests. Looking forward to actually skiing here when the Nordies arrive! Here is a photo of their lodge:

Anyway, it was the last day of the Sundance Film Festival and I kept thinking I might see a star, not that I would recognize one since you all know how non-film-fluent I am. Surprise!!!! Here he is!!!!!!

After this incredible "star" sighting, we headed out of Sundance and on up to Park City via the eastern side of the Wasatch range. Nice drive through horse country, Heber, UT. We walked main street of Park City doing an art gallery check. Our final destination was back to SLC for dinner with Marie Corbin at an awesome Mexican restaurant, The Red Iguana. (yes, Linda S., I had the Mole Negro!). Quite delicious.

It was back to the slopes at Brighton today. All the great powder has been abused so we are looking forward to more snow on Wednesday night this week.

Jan 27 Powder Pigs

Just call us powder pigs! Another 8+ inches last night up at Alta and a super day in the pow and sunshine. Hit Ballroom just right again as they opened it. Watched massive black powder induced avalanches on the back side (East Greely) as the ski patrol blew up that side of the ridge. There's a job that you couldn't pay me enough to do! Mike finally broke down (or I beat him down!) and rented a pair of powder skis today. What a difference! He can now keep me in his sight. Although he's contemplating buying me a new ski jacket in some florescent shade of pink or green so that he can get a fix on where I am. Light blue just fades into the powder.

Heather blessed us with a hug when we ran into her in the lift line today. We even met several of her male ski buddies at the top of the lift. Of course it was a powder day so she wasn't about to ski with her 'rents - she prefers the company of 6 guys (no other girls),

What a week! Six straight days of skiing and 2 of them were powder days. I think we deserve another Corona! Here are a few photos of the views:

Jan 26

Boy, it's hard keeping up with the blog when the skiing is fantastic! Last entry was on Sunday morning when Little Cottonwood Canyon was closed because of an avalanche over the road. We had 22 inches that Saturday night. We sipped our coffee and tea for 2 hours watching the road block below us. As soon as the police removed the block we jumped in our car and headed out to get in the line of cars heading up canyon. Skiing was superb!

We've skied every day this week mostly at Alta and once over at Brighton. On Tuesday, I joined the Women's Ski group that skies together every week. What a bunch of super skiers of all ages! The group leaders are awesome skiers that have worked at Alta for years and they have inside info on terrain openings. Ballroom had not yet opened from the 22 inch dump on Sunday, but the word came over radio to our group leader that ski patrol was about to open it. We jumped in line at the gate and traversed over to a perfect line. Yeehawed all the way down making fresh powder tracks!! Sometimes you just get lucky! Fighting all those twenty-something lodge employees for first tracks can be exhausting! (Note: Heather occasionally hollers from the lift when she has a "parent sighting.")

Today we changed things up a bit and took our tele gear up to Alta. Arrived at noon just as the snow started to fall. Spent the afternoon up in Supreme trying to improve our telemark turns. The snow kept coming and coming. Looks like another 12 inches by tomorrow morning. We had our first white knuckle trip down canyon at the end of the day - but safely back at the house it was only rain. Off to bed early for an early powder day tomorrow IF the road is open. Livin' the ski bum dream!

Jan 22nd

What can this mean??

CanyonAlerts UPD Canyon Alerts

Jan22: Updated estimate for opening the road in Little Cottonwood is 11:00 am. Additional delays are probable for Alta -CanyonAlerts.org

12 minutes ago

CanyonAlerts UPD Canyon Alerts

Jan22: Little Cottonwood Canyon is closed. Est. open time is 10:30am. Vehicles will not be allowed to stage on the road -CanyonAlerts.org

2 hours ago

CanyonAlerts UPD Canyon Alerts

Jan21: Little Cottonwood 8:30PM Is closed until Sunday morning. Slide across roadway -CanyonAlerts.org

13 hours ago

Only good things if we can get up the road. It is 10:15 AM and Alta is still shutdown and in interlodge after 22" in the past 24 hours.

_____

Jan 18 Holy Moose Day!

Yahooo, yippeee, woooohoooo! We had a near sighting and close encounter with TWO bull moose today while snowshoeing in Mill Creek Canyon (next canyon north of Big Cottonwood Canyon). Almost wet my pants when I looked up and saw these behemoth guys venturing out onto the main trail from the side trail just 50 feet in front of us. Unbelievably they started duking it out butting antlers right there in the middle of the trail. My heart beat faster - yes - could be my opportunity to claim a rack if they knocked off some of those antlers!

Well, dearest husband started scrambling up the icy slope at the trail edge heading for cover in the trees while dear wife stood there taking pics. Then when I realized they had me dead on in their sight, I thought maybe I should head for the trees too - just perhaps this one time (chuckle) Mike had the right idea. Har, har, he slipped on the icy slope - splat, face down and slid right out onto the trail! OMG, if I only had a picture!! LOL. So, I suggested that we head to the other side of the trail where there was a small narrow foot bridge that just might collapse (wishful thinking) if the behemoths decided to actually chase us. Well, here are the photos. These dudes passed us as while we were on the other side of the foot bridge and of course my hands were so frozen by then that I took some awesome photos of - nothing!! So, the first photo will be Mike, not a moose in a red jacket, snow shoeing up the trail. The rest will be my attempt to point and shoot while scrambling for cover from the moose.

Jan 17th

While waiting for the snow, 3+ feet are expected through this coming weekend, for those wondering if it would be worthwhile to come out, we attended an Avalanche Awareness seminar at the local REI. It was presented by the folks at the Utah Avalanche Center and was very interesting. Links to the video used in the presentation is below along with links to other information. The main point of the presentation is that the snow pack is the most unstable they have seen it since the early 1980's and they expect much avalanche activity. Jean said she thinks she'll stay inbounds but I doubt that!

Links:

Class video

Utah Avalanche Center's Know Before You Go program

Take care!