off-piste

Last week I was asking what "off-piste" meant; this week I was skiing it!  I rule, by the way.

We totally called it on which day to ski this last weekend of vacation week: today was warm (in the 30s), sunny (per the weather forecast, "mostly cloudy" and if so, I'll take "mostly cloudy" any damn day of the week) and uncrowded.  Apparently they don't call it "Solitude" for nothing - while the trails at the center of the resort were pretty well skied off by 2:00 p.m., we never once waited in a lift line and there was plenty of snow on the periphery.

We got a little more adventuresome this time, heading into Honeycomb Canyon (which is labeled with signs like "Unmarked Obstacles," "Avalanche Danger" and "Cliffs") for a couple of outstanding, if exhausting runs.  The entrance to the canyon is off the highest lift (10,035 ft.) and once you're in the canyon, you have the choice of traversing for as far as you want on either side before dropping down into chutes that eventually bring you to the run-out at the bottom of the gulch.  We didn't traverse too long because there was plenty of gorgeous snow not too far in, but if you're willing to do the work, the rewards are deep and fluffy, despite the fact that WE NEED SNOW PLEASE.  The other very cool thing about this canyon is that it takes a darn long time to get back to a lift; the canyon pretty much runs the length of the resort from east to west and your legs are grateful for a chair back to the center of things by the time you're done with it.

Other than the runs in Honeycomb, we largely sought out bumps wherever we could, as long as our knees could take it, because while the groomers eventually got skied off, the snow stayed quite good on the mogul runs.  I even willingly did bumps runs under the lift for the first time in my life, enjoying the conditions too much to care about any commentary from above.  Rollercoaster, under the Sunrise lift, was my last run of the day and the snow there was fantastic; I wished we'd done it sooner because my legs were just toast by then, but even so, it was a great run.

Afterwards, we stopped into the Porcupine (of course) to celebrate our three month anniversary of being in Utah.  I can't believe it's only been three months: it seems like we've done so much already that it must be longer. 

Also, first fall of the season goes to H, who found himself in a clump of deep powder after maneuvering to avoid a little tree in Honeycomb.  If I'd had the camera, I totally would have taken a picture for you all.  I did sit down once on Rollercoaster but it was because I was soooooooooo tired and not an actual digger on my part.