So up we got and off we went to ski, leaving our apartment at a little before 8:00 - the lifts open at 9:00 a.m. out here - and pulling into the front row of the parking lot at about 8:25 a.m. Front row. We bought our $58 day tickets and put our boots on in the locker room; then, to save $1 for the locker, H ran our boot bags back out to the car. Because we'd gotten a spot in the front row, you see. Practically ski-in/ski-out.
Right at 9:00 a.m. we hopped on the lift, pretty much getting the first chair. It hasn't snowed since last weekend so everything blue (intermediate) and green (beginner) was groomed; the black trails (expert) were not and although most of the fluffy powder was skied out, since THERE IS NO ICE OUT HERE, the bumps, while solid, were not bullet-proof. We tried to cover most of the mountain, riding all the lifts (except the baby beginner one) and sampling as many trails as we could.
It's too bad there wasn't more snow because H was anxious to get off the groomers and into the trees. One of the cool things about skiing out here is that you're not locked into the ski trails: pretty much anything within resort bounds is allowed and you can even go out of bounds as long as you read the "no ski patrol and no avalanche patrol" signs and realize you're skiing at your own risk. H managed to ski in the bumps and off the trails enough that we were both a little sore by 2:00 p.m. when we called it a day. I even did some bumps - on my first day out, thank you very much - not having to worry about any ice really does wonders for one's confidence.
Other interesting tidbits: a Brighton employee read a guest the riot act for being rude to the parking attendants when they asked him to move his car; a lifty made a kid go to the back of the line when he tried to enter the lift via the ski school lane ... even though there was nobody in line; there are awesome views of the Heber valley (where Park City, etc., is) from the top of the lifts; we heard several avalanche guns going off; and I saw two dogs, one in the main lodge and an avalanche dog on top of the mountain, despite this being Big Cottonwood Canyon where dogs are not even allowed in cars (poor Becky).
We stopped in at the Porcupine (naturally) on our way out of the canyon and the bartender, rightly guessing we'd been skiing from our reddened faces and silly apres-ski hats, recommended that we give Solitude a try, saying that there are "no lift lines ever at Solitude." Since we didn't think there were any lines to speak of at Brighton (or at least not compared to weekends back east), we thought this sounded good. We're not sure we'll go tomorrow - we'd like to because skiing is better than not skiing, but there isn't any snow in tonight's forecast and it's tough to face paying for a lift ticket if the snow isn't going to be any better than it was today. Please let me reiterate, however, that the snow was quite good, with NO ICE WHATSOEVER, and not even getting skied off by the afternoon. But we're fully committed to being Utahns and that includes being snow-snobs. So we'll see. Of course, if we can't stand not skiing tomorrow, you'll read all about it here.
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Sounds like a great first day on the slopes. We're getting some snow right this minute, but it doesn't look as if Maine will get hit the way it did south of here. Too bad.
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