HURRICANE WINDS IN THE MOUNTAINS

I took a much needed day off yesterday as the forecast was for a strong cold front to blow through with very high windspeeds.

Most of the high lifts were closed and resorts were reporting winds in excess of 90 mph. This is equal to a cat 1 hurricane. I did not hear of damage in the resorts but trucks were blown over and barns destroyed.

I woke up today to snow on the car

but nothing like the snow I had last year.



With the promise of better conditions lower down I decided to make the trip up to Snowbasin for my last day on this ski trip. After all a bit of luxury never hurts.

Marble tiled toilets.

Elegant washbasins.

Comfortable chairs in front of real fires when you feel the need to relax for a moment.

And last but not least the best on mountain lodge with the best chilli I have tasted so far.

But it was cold and with enough wind to add significant wind chill so I was in silk balaclava and inner gloves mode for the morning.

In the afternoon the clouds rolled in and the light went so I stayed on familiar runs until my knees cried uncle.

I drove back to Salt Lake City thinking that although the dates were kind of forced on me by the problems with the autopilot and cutlass bearing delays skiing this late on had given me a lot of blue sky days and as Alta has a base station that is higher than the summit lift at Whistler good snow conditions as long as I chose the resort for the day carefully.