Things – or more precisely, the snow – sure can be desperate these days. Desperate enough that, when offered a chance to sling my skins across the ice in a new locale, I jumped at the chance.
If anything can confuse a couple of SLC fellas heading out for a bit of skiing, it must be trying to answer the question of ‘Where are we?’ when skiing on the unfamiliar east facing side of the Wasatch Back. With limited options for snow coverage, Jason, Mark, and I, dog in tow, looked through options that were more limited than usual. This was a perfect reason to get away from known quantities, and head towards the four inches of snow available at Deer Valley…
The very picture of desperate snow conditions.
After consulting some trail maps, it turns out that we skied at both Deer Valley and at Park City. The two resorts are basically joined at the hip. By skinning up beneath the Empire chair and moving over the ridgeline a ¼ click, we were suddenly at Park City’s double black diamond McConkey’s Bowl. Fearsome stuff, let me tell you. With slope grades approaching 38 degrees for at least nine turns, this is white knuckle skiing at its finest. Well, maybe not, but the crusty conditions definitely added a touch of bland heat to the spice level.
Mark pushing through the 'pow.' If you look closely, you'll see plenty of crust chunks in that powder cloud.
Jason dropping into McConkey's.
More J-Bo in McConkey's...
Fortunately, the crust gave way in short order to this other stuff that people sometimes call powder. Yes, it’s true. Powder at a ski area many days after the latest real snowfall. The only unfortunate was that the slope angle quickly returned to about 12°… Tossed in a couple laps to milk the goods before making our way downvalley to SLC. Between here and there, I saw a first: man’s best friend being carried by man on skis. I made sure to get a picture.
Man's best friend being carried by man. Hardcore ski hot dogging, I guess.
Dog porting.
A OK blasts through some low angle pow goodness. There wasn't much of it, so each bit was savored...
Pretty desperate in this direction, too. Snow, please.
So I love it when smog-breathing valley dwellers actually leave the tri-canyons area only to dog the conditions and terrain.
You are right. Snow conditions are… Desperate. You are also right calling resort bump runs are pretty weak.
But you walked all that way to ski them, which, I guess, makes you desperate and lame. You probably should just stick to the LCC. It would be way cooler to blog about skiing the radness there.
Your points are well made, Anon Y. Mus.
Desperate and lame? I suppose so. Haven’t seen a substantial amount of snowflakes for a long time, which makes me desperate for snow. I dog on flat terrain and then go ski it repeatedly – since that’s where the snow is presently – which makes me lame. Guess I’d rather be desperate, lame, and skiing, than not.
I turn to prayer to better myself:
‘Ullr, God of Snow, help me to be less desperate and lame. Any time now.’
P.S. Careful calling people desperate and lame from an anonymous handle. It opens doors to desperate and lame people who might insult you in some manner for not revealing your identity to the smog breathers.
Keep enjoying the fresh air up there. I sure did.