I was fascinated to watch someone produce a MRE back. He was related to a soldier and had got it to try. It came with a handwritten list from the relative saying what to trade, what to throw away and then the good stuff. I got to try a couple of things and unlike the British COMPO rations this stuff was tasty.
After dinner I joined a ranger lead tour explaining about the resort and it's relationship with Salt lake City. A surprising fact was that the snow we were skiing on is a big part of SLC's water supply. I suppose that explained the heavy penalties for making yellow snow. An even more surprising fact was that it is only 24 hours from snow on the slope to someones tap.
They are a little behind the continental resorts in their avalanche control systems.
Yes that is a gun, big gun, a big old gun. They use it to fire shells on predetermined settings to start avalanches after storms. The ranger says that they have got it wrong on a couple of occasions and either fired on the wrong angle [ you did say 45 degrees NO %$ YOU IDIOT ] putting a hole in a lift shelter or loaded two bags of propellant instead of one. It was thought to be a dud but in fact arched high enough to clear the mountain and land in the next town. No one was hurt but many kids had something special for show and tell that day.
It snowed hard that night
and I had a late start with the intention of missing the traffic snarl ups but was even later as I had to deice the car after shifting the snow.
The Canyons resort had a different feel to it from Alta, for a start they allow boarders and there are upmarket condo developments all over the slopes. But like Alta there were almost no queues and the sun was often out. However it was really really cold as you can see from my pic. Silk balaclava, inner gloves and an extra layer under the jacket was the rig of the day.
John for SLC thats not a lot of snow, when the car is just a foot high bulge in a sea of white thats a lot of snow. Seriously it can snow 2ft overnight and with the drifting it can block the exit to the house. You need to remember where you parked your car as it is really annoying to spend 30 minutes digging only to uncover someone elses car.
ReplyDeleteHowever it does make them happy :D
If you are unfortunate the snow plough may have added another couple of feet of snow to break through to get out of your parking position.
Sounds like you are having a great time.