Wowed by the Wasatch

I arrived in Salt Lake knowing that it had not snowed in a long time and I was wondering what type of trip it was going to be. Lots of time spent at OR; but what would I get up to in the mountains around here. I have been here three times and never experienced the “utah” powder, I have stood on top of at least five of the summits but never had that deeeep powder experience. Till now.

I arrived late Sunday and woke up to 10 inches of new. Not too bad, it had blown into the north so I played up and off mt-Superior and skied the two north chutes, both decent but even deeper when I was on the fan. Fun skiing but I was still riding the crust. My watch ticked over, 5% done.

Tuesday was the first day anyone else skied the Stoke ski and it snowed 18 inches. We all shredded around Snowbird and had an awesome morning. So fun to see all these people having fun on my “signature” ski. I snuck away for an afternoon of ski, with Steve Romeo and than solo. Things were getting better.

The Or show began and I had to sneak out whenever I could. Each day it snowed 10-24 inches and I finally started to experience the Wasatch in its prime. Amazing. What is also amazing is the dawnpatrol around here. I was often at the parking lot around 6.30 and I would find 5-10 cars already there, with their occupants already gone. There is a very large and impressive backcountry ski culture here, I met lots of great people and enjoyed turns with some of them. Thanks a lot for those skin tracks.

So throughout the week it snowed and on my final run I jumped off the skin track and sunk up to my shoulders in the new snow that had fallen throughout the week.

It  was a hard place to leave, since it was only getting better. But I had a little date planned with Tracey. She left the kids in the capable hands of my father and has met me in Las Vegas. Kids educational fund in hand and we are off to the poker tables…