BACK HOME

40 inches of fresh snow and not any old snow finest Rocky mountain champagne powder fell the day before I was due to leave.. I was going to spend my last day at Alta but the access road was closed to all traffic due to avalanche danger.

So off to Park City / Canyons. I knew that road had been closed due to a major accident but it was opened as I left. SLC.

Not my favorite sort of skiing with heavy snow and flat light making it hard to see in near whiteout conditions. So I stuck to a couple of easy runs which I know well and had an enjoyable couple of hours.

Then it was packing for the 3.30 am start to the long day travelling home to Elephants Child. I had swapped my boring Toyota Camry after some crackhead broke the window. In exchange I got a monster AWD SUV. Which I needed as I slipped and slid over frozen slush and snow covered roads back to the airport.

Anyway I am back on board to a very vocal welcome from Dizzy and a chance to catch up on sleep in my own bed with the sound of the surf on the reef as a welcome lullaby.

SKIING CANYONS AND ALTA

Skiing Canyons and Alta. Lovely sunshine and empty pistes and no queues, well until Presidents day weekend.

Then we had socked in weather and mega queues.

My Epic Pass had blacked out 18th and 19th but I can ski Canyons tomorrow so will make the drive weather permitting.

Washington's Birthday A slight chance of snow before 11am, then a slight chance of rain and snow. Cloudy, with a high near 47. South wind 7 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

"What is it with this rain. Ah well global warming is real".

Snow in the high country passes Tomach Inn Rubber Ducky Care Package Crested Butte and Powderhorn

I had left myself a day of wiggle room when planning the trip to make sure I did not have to make it across Monarch Pass in bad weather.

Well I needed it. I left on the early day and had a =n easy run over the pass to Gunnison. But near the summit the snow walls at the roadside were 10 feet or more. The next day both Vail pass my alternate route and Monarch pass were closed on and off as trucks got stuck and slid back or jackknifed.

I had a room reserved at the Inn at Tomichi.

The room came with it's signature extra inhabitant allowing me to bath with a friend.

When I checked out I got a care package to help me survive the next leg of my trip.

Nice place.

The purpose of the trip had been to ski Crested Butte and Powderhorn.

Crested Butte had been sleeting both days and the light had been very poor.

As drove past Delta in the valley en route to Powderhrn it was looking a little more hopeful and as I got to the top of Grande Mesa I burst through the cloud into bright sunshine and beautiful snow.

Unfortunately Powderhorn is on the side of the mesa and it was in cloud.

I drove in and waited for a while to see if things were going to improve but there seemed to be little wind and the forecast had talked about little movement of the weather system.

So it was bye bye to Powderhorn and on towards Utah.

I dropped maybe 500 ft and I was out of the mist. So frustrating.

THE SNOW DEVILS WERE DANCING ON THE SLOPES TODAY

Slightly dubious about skiing today. The plan was to ski Breck in the morning then drive to Gunnison via Monarch pass.. However the jet stream is right over Colorado. Breck is reporting 90 mph wind gusts and the next installment of the Pineapple Express is arriving this afternoon.




I guess I can drive up and have a look dodging the blown over trucks. Lots of these on the news including 3 on Monarch pass.

But I can see the high altitude winds are blowing snow off the peaks.

They have some lower chairs that run through the trees and I finished up on these for a couple of hours of enjoyable groomer zooming. I had decided that I would only ski if the new town gondola was running. It was as I left the car but they shut it down as I got there. As I was there I hassled onwards taking the bus to Peak 9.

It was sunny warm and really windy at times. Hence the snow devils dancing on the pistes.

FIRST DAYS ON THE WHITE STUFF

Every year I wonder is it worth it as I sort out the logistics, catch the early flight out of Grenada, hassle my through US immigration [ not so bad this year ] and drive into the mountains.

Well as I got my ski legs back and was cutting big lazy arcs in the snow practicing my GS turns my heart was singing and I knew why I do it.

I am really glad that I have a pass this year that allows me to choose from a variety of resorts so today it was a case of avoiding the traffic. As you can see the road to the ski resorts was solid, stop go and averaging under 10 mph.

If the weather is as forecast I will make the trip to Beaver Creek tomorrow and hope to avoid the queues.

Life is good in the mountains.

IN THE MOUNTAINS AGAIN

I was very lucky to find a very responsible young man on a cruising boat to look after Dizzy.

Lots of attention and playtimes in the future I think.

Lenticular clouds in the Sierras above the ski resorts.

But the winds produce icicles of curious shapes.

I could have rushed out for an hour on the ski slopes but I am a little tired and it is still pretty windy so I will take it easy in Silverthorne.

One good thing that happened on the journey from Grenada to the mountains was that the 90 minute queue to get through immigration in Miami was down to ten minutes or so. 2 minutes on a computer screen then a short wait to get the stamp.