rockin' the locker

 We have totally scored at Alta this season: the sister of one of our neighbor's is subletting her Goldminer's Daughter ski locker to us.  There are a fair number of ski lockers up at Alta, both in the GMD basement and in the skier services building, but the waitlist for them is over ten years long, and we've heard that they don't even bother adding new names to the list anymore - people just don't give them up.  So when this locker was offered to us, we were all YES YES WE WANT IT OF COURSE THANK YOU!

As I mentioned, it's in the GMD basement, a slightly damp space completely lined with sticker-encrusted lockers, with wooden benches and tables and a pervasive sense of you're local now.  The lockers are long and narrow, with enough room for our two pairs of skis and poles but not wide enough to stuff our boot bags into.  It has, therefore, turned into a bit of planes-trains-and-automobiles to go skiing: we drive from our house to the bus (7 a.m.); ride the bus to Alta's Wildcat base (arrive 7:50); go to the locker, change into our boots and grab our skis and poles; ride the rope tow with our boot bags (because the next inter-resort shuttle is about a half hour away) up to the Albion day lodge where there's room for us to sit and free cubbies for our boot bags; and wait for the lifts to open at 9:15.  Is it kind of ridiculous?  Yes.  But we don't have to wrangle our skis and poles on the crowded ski bus for the whole season and that is just excellent.

Lo and behold

It was warmer but less sunny on Sunday.  I went skiing too.  It wasn't that crowded and the snow was really quite good for early season, but I struggled mightily.  I was way overdressed because it wasn't as cloudy or as windy as the forecast had said.  And I think I was a little dehydrated.  And my legs are not at all in shape after the dearth of hiking this year (note to self: don't sprain your ankle again) - I had to go in and rest!  The most amusing part of the whole thing was that because I was wearing my big, super-warm parka, H kept not recognizing me: two separate times I followed right behind him in the singles line, but he didn't realize it was me and didn't wait at the top like he usually does.  When I finally got his attention, I suggested that we ski separately for the last two hours (so I could go at my own, very slow pace) and just meet up at the GMD a little after 2 p.m.  So that's what we did, and we rode the bus back down, ski- and pole-free and it was glorious.

skiing and doing

 And we're back into our winter routine!  After some very warm days, we got a nice little storm Thursday through Friday which brought over a foot of snow in places in the Wasatch mountains.  Alta now has had 146" of snowfall with a 66" base, although this coming week is going to be warm and dry, which will eat away at that.  The storm was also nice in that the Salt Lake valley got less than an inch, making driving much less anxious for those of us who get anxious about such things.

It did get cold on Saturday, though, so H went up to Alta without me, wearing his warmest parka: it was single digits when he got there and even with bluebird skies, only warmed up ("warmed up") to about 20F.  Alta did have all the lifts open, so after the initial surge, with people stoked about the new snow, the skiers were spread out across the mountain, keeping lift lines reasonable.  H said that the snow was quite good and he skied hard until just after 2 p.m.

It was chilly down in the valley too - I don't think it got about 30F all day.  Milton and I waited until 9 for our four mile walk - the sunshine still felt good, even in the 20s - and then I got busy.  I made spiced candied almonds, peanut butter and pumpkin dog biscuits, a kale/lentil/vegan sausage soup to have Sunday after skiing, and a tasty curry with chickpea and zucchini koftas for Saturday dinner.  I also did a big load of laundry and finished up Christmas presents.  Now that I've written it all out, it doesn't look like that much, but I was actually on my feet all day, only sitting down for fifteen minutes for breakfast and for lunch.  Staying home can be a lot of work - it's not all sitting around eating bonbons!

and the 2023/2024 ski season begins

 Alta was supposed to open for the 2023/2024 season on November 17th.  They didn't, because there wasn't any snow.  When they did actually open, over Thanksgiving weekend, we were in Moab so H wasn't able to be there as he tries to do.  After a full five days of inversion-induced smog in the Salt Lake valley,  a nice storm rolled in Thursday night, blowing out the crap in the air and bringing in snow.

I bought a ten-pack this year so I will be judicious about my ski days (but not quite so picky about temperatures now that I have my lovely heated socks).  So it should come as no surprise that I did not ski this weekend.  H, on the other hand, has basically been waiting for this since mid-April.  He left the house at 7 a.m. Saturday morning for the bus (the UTA is running the ski buses at half schedule again this year).

At 7:14 a.m. he was on the bus, standing room only.  They got to Alta's Goldminer's Daughter lodge at 7:52.  Since non-guests are no longer welcome at the GMD, he had to wait for the rope tow to start running so he could get up to Albion day lodge (the in-resort shuttles between the lodges are not yet running) to leave his gear bag (as GMD lockers are about $15/day).  At 8:05, an hour and ten minutes before lifts opened, the line had already formed at Collins chair.  He got to Albion at 8:30 and settled in for a while:opening was delayed until 10 a.m. so ski patrol could do avalanche mitigation.  

Lift lines at Collins

As you can see, the lift lines were insane, as people stacked up waiting to get on the lift.  The Sunnyside lift is not yet open (whether due to staffing or maintenance is unclear) so that wasn't available to help spread people out.  But by the time H got up the mountain (25 minutes in the singles line, so I guess it could have been worse), however, it didn't end up being too bad - he skied right onto Sugarloaf, and continued to ride that chairlift with scarcely any lines.

As far as the skiing went, well, it's early season for sure.  Not much open terrain, lots of rocks, you know the drill.  And while it wasn't nuking snow all day, the light was very, very flat and visibility was bad.  When he got home (before 3) and started laying out his gear for Sunday, he suggested that I not go - that I wouldn't enjoy the conditions.

Another angle.  Ski Colorado, please

Funny that: he didn't enjoy the conditions much on Sunday either: he got up and on the bus, arriving at GMD at 7:52, and then proceeded to sit in the Albion lodge until about 11:30 before getting back on a bus to come home without having skied at all.  "I'm cutting my losses," he said.  This storm has produced very high avalanche conditions and Alta didn't end up opening until nearly 1 p.m.  Just down the hill, Snowbird didn't open anything but their little baby Chickadee lift all day - too dangerous.

Even further down the hill, Milton and I had a productive weekend.  On Saturday, we did a three mile walk, and Milton got to chase/be chased by a friendly wheaten terrier.  We made three meals' worth of red lentil soup for the freezer, inventoried/organized said freezer, put up the window candles, set up the mudroom for ski season, did a bunch of laundry, put flannel sheets on the guest bed, got started with holiday cards and caught up on blog posts.  Dinner was a new tomato/peanut/chickpea Instantpot stew recipe.  On Sunday, we did our walk, and Milton got to chase/be chased by our neighbor's black lab mix, Packer.  We made chocolate chip cookies, a cinnamon apple galette, vacuumed, finished the laundry, continued to work on holiday cards and even did a Home Depot run where I got hand warmers for skiing and Milton got treats from an employee and pets from a little girl.  Success all the way around!

catching up still: tgiving weekend

Friday was a complete washout as a storm system moved in.  It was cold and rainy off and on all day, pausing long enough for us to visit our favorite bartender to deliver homemade peanut butter and pumpkin dog cookies for her Great Pyrenees mix, Hilde.  (We also stayed for a beer or two).

It snowed a little overnight, leaving a rapidly-melting inch or two on the valley floor Saturday morning.  We connected with some friends from Salt Lake who were in town for a couple of days, taking them out for a late morning hike to Jeep Arch.  They are jeepers themselves and come down to Moab for that, but they haven't done a ton of hiking.  The trail to Jeep Arch was busier than H and I have ever experienced it - including a couple with three Underdog rescues (that Milton was thrilled to meet) and two sweet Underdog foster puppies (that H and I gladly held for a bit to help socialize).  When we dropped into the wash for the walk out, however, we had that to ourselves.  There was more water in the wash than we often see due to the recent precipitation but not so much that we were in danger of soaking our feet.  That would have been unpleasant!

They are SO tall!

Hike stats: 4.00 miles; 1:42 / 2.3 m.p.h. moving average; 1:53 / 2.1 overall

And that was about it.  H, Milton and I did a town walk Sunday morning and then we packed up and headed north.  There was snow on the lawns but none to shovel - score one for the good guys.

catching up: thanksgiving

 It's December 2, 2023, and THANK GOODNESS shoulder season is over and we can finally get some content around here!  H is up at Alta for his first ski day this season - but more on that later.  First we have to go all the way back to last month and our nice Thanksgiving in Moab.

Commemorating the day with a selfie

H took the day before off, and I just packed up a little work to do at home, so we were on the road heading back down to the desert by 6 a.m. morning.  Traffic was fine, the roads were fine and because of our early start, Milton and I were hiking the Slickrock Trail practice loop at Sand Flats Recreation Area by 11 a.m.  Exercise thus accomplished, we set up some lamps (non-overhead lighting - woohoo!) and caught up with some friends at Woody's over a beer.

Our attempt at a group shot

Thanksgiving morning was chilly (low 30s) but sunny-ish.  We had reached out to our neighbors who were sticking around for the holiday weekend and by 10 a.m. we five people and two dogs were at the Amasa Back trailhead.  Along with lots of other vehicles.  Natalie and Lauren had never hiked over here before so we were happy to introduce them to one of our favorite loops: up the Hymasa MTB trail, to the river overlook, and then down the jeep trail.

And then a MTBer helped us out

It was a great day to hike - dry and nice, cool temperatures - and, despite the busy parking lot, we didn't see all that many people.  Enough MTBers to take a group photo for us, however.  Milton and Moscow (Amelia's Underdog rescue) had a great day, chasing each other, snuffling under trees, launching themselves off rocks for dog parkour.

What a crew

Amelia supports the "beers back at the trucks" situation as we do, and we all toasted a nice hike while we watched a number of BASE jumpers get organized and head towards the cliffs.  We didn't wait long enough to see them jump, however, because there was cooking to do!

Heading down

We had invited the girls over for our non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  Natalie and Lauren had plans with friends but Amelia and Moscow joined us for an excellent, low-key, no stress meal.  She made a delicious kale soup, spiced with chile peppers she had grown herself, which was a great lead-in to our lentil shepherd's pie, extra mashed potatoes (because you always need more mashed potatoes) and roasted acorn squash.  It was a really good day.

Hike stats: 6.22 miles; 2 hours 10 minutes/2.9 m.p.h. moving average; 2:25/2.6 overall

living in a GnR song

 Back in Maine, February used to be my least favorite month but out here in the west, I think it's November.  We've actually been very, very lucky for the first half of the month, with lots of sunshine and temperatures in the 60s.  But the weather seems to have turned a corner this week and it is, all of a sudden, very November-y.  Shoulder season, cold, dark and wet: today, for example, it is 40s and raining all day.  (H's and my second least favorite kind of weather - only 30s and raining is worse.)  We have been trapped in the house all weekend - cleaning, cooking and reading - and Milton doesn't understand why we won't turn off the sky water so we can go DO something.

Amazingly, some of the Utah ski resorts have opened, albeit with like ten inch bases, bless their hearts:

No word on Alta yet but if this storm brings the 2+ feet the forecasters are boasting, that may help them with their decision.

opening days (anticipated)

On Saturday (11/11/23), H and I went up to Alta to pick up our 2023/2024 ski passes: full-on season pass for H, ten-pack for me.  It was a pretty day for the end-of-early November: partly cloudy, pretty clear air, temperatures ranging from high 30s to low 50s across northern Utah.  We drove up the canyon a little after 11:30 a.m.; the various climbing and hiking trailheads were busy with folks taking advantage of the mild winter.  As we went past Snowbird, we shook our heads - the snow is thin at best.  But when we turned into Wildcat base at Alta, we were surprised to see 100+ cars in the lot and all sorts of folks milling around, layering up and putting skins on their skis.  We went into Skier Services to pick up our passes, noting the ropes across the Collins lift area and the CLOSED signs.  Ten minutes later, as we walked out, the ropes and the sign were gone and backcountry skiers were skinning up Corkscrew.  

Twenty minutes later, as we were sitting at the bar at the Hog Wallow, toasting the impending start of the ski season, three 20-somethings wearing ski pants came in.  They'd been up at Solitude, which was open (!!), standing in line for 30 minutes to do one bunny-slope run.  "We ripped up that seven inches!" one girl laughed.  And so it begins.

Here are the purported opening dates per Ski Utah (subject to change, of course):

harvest

 The ski areas are not so thrilled but boy oh boy has the late autumn weather been nice in northern Utah!  It was chilly at the start of the week: 24 F in the morning, warming to mid 40s F.  But it was sunny and warmed slightly through the week.  It would have been great weather for hiking - we had some home chores stacking up, however, and once again did not get out on the trails.  Note that this will lead to a sparseness of content around here in the short term.

Autumnal colors

Saturday was quite nice, mostly to partly sunny with a high of 67 F.  Milton and I did our 4ish mile walk, then cleaned up the front yard, finally taking down all the sunflowers.  H mowed and then set to work digging out the shut-off valve for the sprinkler system (having sprinklers is such a hassle).  While he did that - and Milton supervised, and got treats delivered to him by our neighbor - I puttered around in the kitchen.

At least we like winter squash 

better than summer squash

I'm trying to be better about food waste and so rescued a small unwanted pie pumpkin from a Halloween display at work.  We also had a butternut squash from our CSA so I whole-roasted them both, then scooped out the guts (and made roasted pumpkin seeds, which we immediately devoured). Those two squashes yielded nine cups of puree (mash, really)!  I froze most of it but also made a batch of pumpkin muffins (and may have snuck some squash into a mulligatawny soup as well.

brief desert interlude

 The first real storm of the season came in Wednesday evening into Thursday morning.  The mountains (Alta, et als.) got 8-12" and it even snowed a bit in the valley, but - thankfully, because I am not ready for winter yet - did not stick.  The storm moved out of the area by midday on Thursday and when we got underway to head down to Moab, the road was clear and dry and you wouldn't have know that it had snowed, except for the mountains' frosty tops.

"Holy moly is that a squirrel?" - Milton, probably

It was definitely cooler in Moab than it has been, but we really lucked out on the weather.  Friday was gorgeous, mostly sunny with highs in the mid- to upper 60s F.  Milton and I did a short hike up on the Slickrock Trail.  This was his first time back out on the slickrock since he injured his paw and I cautioned him to take it easy.  He did not take it easy.  But he also didn't reinjure anything, so it all worked out.  We did the Practice Loop ("just as hard") and went out just a little way on the main trail for the views.  It was medium busy, mostly MTBs.  Milt also met a very nice New Mexico rez dog named Cholla in the parking lot; she was a sweetie.

"Are you coming?" - Milton, definitely

From the weather forecast, both H and I were sure that Saturday was going to be a washout; he did hear the rain in the early hours of the morning and had to scurry around closing windows.  But the rest of the weather held off, allowing us to do a hike at Moab Brands in the late morning where I spotted what was either a coyote or a coyote-looking dog up on the ridge, so Milton had to be leashed for a portion of the hike for his own safety.  That afternoon, H and I walked to Josie Wyatt's for a beer.  I thought about bringing my raincoat ... but didn't, and later regretted it somewhat when we got lightly rained on walking back home.

Sunday morning was nice and clear.  We'd planned to head back to SLC midday so we three only did a town walk.  There weren't too many folks on the bike path through town but Main Street was bustling, especially the breakfast places.  I suspect the local businesses appreciated the mild weather as much as we did, hoping to make bank before things slow down for the off-season.

dang it

 Once again, this week got away from me.  More posts very soon - check back again later!

UPDATED: We did get away for a long weekend in Moab.  Didn't do anything extraordinary but man oh man do we like being there.

Here's a photo from the car ride down.  Milton still doesn't love car rides - although he rarely gets carsick now - and he prefers the truck where we are all together.  In the Subaru, he has to sit in the back.  He doesn't like that, even though we set him up with blankets and plenty of room.