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Bozzin' in Utah
January 2007
Salt Lake City , UT
posted by fonixmunkee
Shazam! My first trip out West this year was also my first repeat out West trip--I've never been to the same place twice, but Utah put such a spell on me with it's fantastic snow and resorts, that for the first time ever I returned to the same place. And again, it was well worth it.
We skied five straight days...and my legs felt every day of it. We started with a (free) half-day at The Canyons which wasn't disappointing at all. It had just snowed the day previous, so powder turns were to be found every direction off-piste. All the backcountry was closed, which was unfortunate, but we still got some great inbound pow turns in.
The next day we went to Brighton, which holds snow days after a snowstorm. I loved Brighton last year and it was my favorite spot because of the phenomenal tree skiing. Again, the gates were closed, so we made the best of what we could inbound. This year, the snow level was significantly lower than the year before, but that didn't stop us from taking some backcountry runs. Mostly, it was all about the fresh, dry powder to be poached in the trees.
The next day I went to the best resort--now officially--I've ever been to: ALTA! The aura of the resort was so hardcore it was both mesmerizing and intimidating. The terrain was epic and my friend's I was with (Generic included) pushed me hard and I ended up skiing stuff I would never have thought I could do. I leveled up my ability at Alta and I owe it to my hardcore ski buddies for pushing me and, Alta for enabling me. I'll surely return to Alta any day. But the best part of Alta? Seeing not ONE but TWO pro skiers (Sage Cattabriga-Alosa [spelled wrong, I'm sure]) and Jeremy Nobis. Generic spotted Sage in the lift line for the Collins chair and we couldn't stop staring at him. It was like seeing a movie star (literally, from all the ski movies) and he saw us staring at him. At the top of the Collins chair, he skied right up to us and started chatting with us. We couldn't believe it! I was dumbfounded and said maybe two words to Sage the entire time, while Generic stumbled through a few sentences before Sage dipped out of sight. We had just met a pro skier! We were euphoric, and meeting Sage set the mood for the rest of the day at Alta. We charged hard for the rest of the time. Eventually, I would talk briefly to Sage again at Alf's restaurant as he struggled to get a drink from the kiddie water fountain. But the first and initial meeting was all it took to get me right into the hardcore ski mood, and I continued to charge everything thrown at me by my friends until I couldn't stand any more.
The next day we skied at Brighton again, and could still find fresh snow even though it looked as if it was tracked up from the busy weekend. My legs were shot and I couldn't turn worth a crap, nor did I have any energy. However, after a few minutes (and a Redbull) in the chalet, we went back to stomping the hell out of some steep tree runs until the lights for night skiing came on.
After that, we went to Snowbird for our final day of skiing. I had a bit more leg strength under me now (I think I was finally getting my legs conditioned for all this skiing, just in time to leave!), so we hit up the snow-scare Mineral Basin for some great technical shorty runs. It was a blast, even though the snow was scare (probably blown out of the basin from the windstorm over the weekend). We took the new Peruvian Express (a huge improvement over the old two-banger chair that used to be there) and went through the Peruvian tunnel...no reason to, since we could always get on the tram (it was a weekday and not very busy), but we mostly took the tunnel to say "we were there." It was very bad ass...and very cool to think that while me and a buddy were going through the tunnel, 200 feet above, two other friends were hiking to Baldy to ski some pow. I wussed out on Baldy because I felt that I didn't have the strength or the skill to ski the terrain. My friends chastised me later, however, saying that I could have easily skied it.
I owe a lot to my friends who really got me over my confidence issue on skis...they really enabled me to become a better skier than I could have ever imagined...in that one trip. So to you all, I raise a beer.
This was my favorite trip out West. I'll for sure be heading back to Utah again (maybe even this year!).
Now the only problem with the trip: I'm sad! Back in MN, there's no snow and it's such a different type of skiing than I was used to out in Utah. My new fat skis handled the pow and packed pow so well, it was a dream to ski them. But when I return to the icy groomers of MN, they handle totally different. Back to my ripper skis, I guess.
Oh well, regardless, I'm skiing again in MN, and that's better than not skiing at all. Like a good friend said, "turns are turns."
But Utah turns are epic. And I want them back.
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