POKER
Salt Lake City Meetup is an online site which helps like minded people meetup. I had registered for the poker section and put my name down for a game while still in the Caribbean. I received my instructions from the organizer and home owner Eric on where to park and where to walk to with the additional instruction that I had to be really quiet and not ring the bell.
I arrived with another guy and was ushered into a splendid home with a downstairs basement complete with a poker table. Eric is serious about his home games. It turned out that he has a child who is a light sleeper and we have to be quiet to avoid waking her up. It was a fun evening and I came away in the black but still feeling crippled.
BRIGHTON SKI RESORT
Friday dawned and wonder of wonders I felt better, the stiffness was gone and I could move normally. So it was off to ski Brighton. I was a bit depressed on the way up as I knew I had been skiing badly at Snowbird and wondered if the skis were to heavy or I was too old and out of condition. The weather was a bit dismal as it was raining as I drove up Big Cotton canyon to Brighton where the rain had turned to very light snow. I trudged up the steep slope to the first lift and clipped my skis on. At the top of the chairlift I set off and as I needed to make the first turn I remembered the magic word I had been given by my first ski instructor in Sauze Doux some 35 years ago as he taught us carved parallel turns.
Shouting "HOOPLA" I up unweighted, changed angulation,moved the outside ski forward,changed edges, all while planting the ski pole. It indeed was magic and I made an effortless carving turn with feet and skis tidily together and one knee socketed in behind the other.
GERONIMO! IT WAS BACK !! I COULD STILL SKI!!!. I spent the rest of the day exploring Brighton and skied most of the runs. Like Snowbird there were no lift queues. I stopped while there was still some gas in the tank and don't feel too stiff this evening.
Another bit of good news was that the inversion over Salt Lake City is breaking up, things are getting warmer,
well the icicles by my room are melting but the air quality is still poor.
I tried to tell you about the queues in SLC, 5 mins is too long to wait, just ski down to another lift.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the technique has come back.
Have a great time and post some pics.
Oh yes the inversion, it can be bad when it hides the mountains on the drive home.
It was not just hiding the mountians it looked like some one had poured a giant carton of dirty double cream into valley.
DeleteIt was thick!
Apparently it has been around for 20+ days and just getting stronger. Still it is forecast to go on Sunday as a cold front moves through and more snow arrives. Reportedly the air quality in SLC is the worst in the USA at the moment.
Skied at Alta today, some queues but nothing like 5 mins. It's GREAT.
I don't think it was ever 20 days,maybe a week was the worst.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the web there are a lot more runs than in my time. Hopefully there is still some virgin runs where you can ski powder. If it's going to snow overnight you needed to be on the slopes early to find fresh snow but well worth the effort,even for me who crashed more often than was good for me.