MARDI GRAS IN THE MOUNTAINS

It is pretty warm out here in Northern Utah and the lower resorts are reporting poor conditions on lower slopes so it looks like I will be sticking to Alta Snowbird Solitude and Brighton. These are the 4 ' Cottonwood Canyons ' resorts and hold their snow better than the lower resorts like Park City.

So I went to Snowbird. One reason was they were running the Swatch Freeride World Tour. I stopped to watch for a little while and again was amazed by the risks they were taking. Still I did not see anybody being helicoptered off to intensive care.

I wonder if any of them had been motivated to be a little more careful after reading that it is looking increasingly unlikely that Michael Schumacher will ever wake up.

One of the unusual features at Snowbird is the 600ft tunnel through the mountain which leads out to a great sunny bowl.

You ride through one a magic carpet and they entertain you as you go with oldie pics and factoids.

It would not be good for anyone suffering from claustrophobia though.






But I was soon back on the slopes just enjoying being in the mountains and feeling the snow beneath my skis.

However it was Mardi Gras and I spotted a young lady donating her beads to the bead tree while another tree nearby was growing more 'strange fruit'.

Yup Snowbird has an underwear tree too!

But the runs were pretty empty, lift queues were non existent and the sun was shining. So life is good.