the first wave

The Easterners are coming! The Easterners are coming!  In fact, we already skied one of them into the ground at Solitude on Sunday. 

Our friend Tom (one of H's oldest friends from Portland) has business in SLC today and tomorrow, so he took advantage of the location to see us and flew in Saturday afternoon.  We picked him up at the airport, right in the middle of a snowstorm, and drove him through downtown to show him the sights - except that said snowstorm had the cloud ceiling at about the tops of the SLC skyscrapers (which aren't that big actually) and you couldn't see the mountains at all.  Regardless, we drove down Wasatch Boulevard, commenting on all the stuff he would be seeing if he were able to see, and stopped in at the Porcupine for beers and dinner (chile verde burritos for the boys, Thai chicken pizza for me, Squatter's Full Suspension Pale Ale for everyone).

Sunday morning dawned overcast but no longer snowing and although we had three inches at our house, the Canyon roads were clear.  We'd already picked up tickets so after a strong coffee and bagel breakfast, we jumped in the truck and headed to Solitude where Saturday's storm had kindly left eleven new inches.  It was, of course, great: the groomers were soft and creamy; the ungroomed light and puffy.  Even when the ungroomed runs got chopped up, the snow was so light that you could cruise right through the clumps.  Tom stuck to the blue runs mostly, trying to get used to his longer rental snowboard, but H and I got him on a couple of black bump runs and he was a wicked good sport about it.

The only downside was that the weather was totally socked in.  Any of the higher peaks were completely encased in cloud so that the visibility was not only poor, but rather nerve-wracking.  The wind was blowing pretty strongly and we caught snatches of blue sky from time to time (and also an occasional face-scouring from the blowing snow) but it wasn't until sunset that the clouds really began to open up.  Still, the snow was soft and plentiful, the temperatures were quite comfortable and the company was good.

The smiles are sunny even if the day isn't

By 2:00 p.m. Tom's legs had given up so we called it a good day and headed back to the house to clean up.  He was staying at a hotel downtown, right near Squatter's where we stopped in for dinner and more Full Suspension before dropping him off.  I think that H is going to try to meet him after work tomorrow before he heads back East; even if that doesn't work out, it was great to see him and catch up.  He's a really good guy.

The next wave of folks from back east starts arriving tomorrow!