whirlwind

Happy New Year to you!  We had house guests staying with us for six days and thus it has been a bit of a whirlwind for us.  Here's how we wrapped up the end of 2017.

Wednesday's conditions

H skied alone on Wednesday, savoring the last bit of new(-ish) snow from the Christmas Eve/Day storm.  Wishing for something new, he foolishly gave Challenger a try and regretted it instantly, texting me to report the same.  He stayed up there until 2:30 p.m., then caught the bus back to the valley to meet our friends, R and C, and their three kids, N (11), T (8) and M (5).  R and H have been friends since high school.  Their family now lives in North Carolina and they do family ski trips each winter: this trip to Utah had been planned since the summer and despite the incredible lack of snow, they were determined to come out and ski every day.  Thank goodness we had gotten that Christmas storm - if we hadn't, things would have been dire indeed.  As it was, the snow just barely held up enough and to be honest, skiing in relatively warm temperatures under bluebird skies is ideal for younger skiers.

Heading out the cat track, top of Supreme

R's family wisely picked up their rental gear Wednesday evening so they didn't have to mess around with that on Thursday morning.  They had a rental car, a spare key to the house and my garage door opener, so H took the bus up to Alta early and then met them around noon.  They immediately liked Alta, especially C, who is Italian and who said that the rocky mountains reminded her of the Alps.  I met them back at home after work and we all had dinner together.  Bonus: C made dinner and she is a great cook!

R and C

On Friday, H rode up to Alta with the crew instead of taking the bus.  R and C put the three kids into ski lessons and then the three adults were able to ski together all day.  When they picked N, T and M up from lessons, they were relieved to see that ski school had been a big success (there had been some trepidation at the start).  After everyone got cleaned up, we drove up to Squatter's for dinner and the kids regaled us with stories of their day.

H and R, together again

After two bluebird days, Saturday was a bit of a change.  It was very warm (in the mid 30s at Alta) with heavy cloud cover and flat light.  H opted out of skiing so I rode up with the group.  Buoyed by their success the day before, the kids went back into lessons and R, C and I skied together.  As this was their third straight day, legs were starting to get tired and the flat light made it very, very difficult to see.  But the snow was super-soft and I was even able to try out a few bumps at the side of the trail.  We met N, T and M at 3:15 p.m. after ski school, and they convinced R and me to go out for one more run - despite how badly we wanted to get out of our ski boots.  We did one run through Sunnyside and then collected C and headed down the canyon.  Since cumulative fatigue was beginning to set in, we ate in, with R and C throwing together a delicious tomato and zucchini pasta.

Under East Castle on Sunday

Things changed up a bit on New Year's Eve day.  R, who has been to Utah on several occasions, wanted his family to see Park City.  They loaded up their ski gear and a change of clothes for afterwards, spending the day skiing at Park City Mountain Resort and then walking around Main Street, with dinner at the Wasatch Brewery.  H and I, meanwhile, hopped on the ski bus and had another day at Alta, doing laps at each of Collins, Sugarloaf and Supreme.  It was a lot colder than it had been Saturday - starting out around 19 F and finally warming up to the low 30s - and gusty on top of Sugarloaf (we hoped it was a little warmer at Park City) but when we got off the groomers and played around in the trees under East Castle, we were able to keep warm.  After skiing, we stopped in at the Goldminer's Daughter Saloon for a NYE pitcher of Johnny's, then took the bus back home.  When R and his crew got home, it was late - for us - and we all just wished each other a Happy New Year before heading to bed around 10 p.m., seeing how it was already the new year on the east coast.

N and T, stoked to shred pow

By the time New Year's Day rolled around, our guests were all slow-moving, tired from four days of skiing at altitude.  But they rallied for one more day at Alta and soon enough we were all up there to ski together for the last day.  We took the Collins lift up and went directly to the Sugarloaf side, where Devil's Elbow was better suited for M's skill level.  Even though M is the youngest, he's a strong little skier, pretty much going top-to-bottom in a snowplow, constantly turning and consistently smiling.  N and T were chafing at the pace a little, asking over and over to do a Cabin Run - which is apparently called "Yellow Bear" in real life.  After lunch, H and I suggested to R and C that we take the two older kids off to do some different runs while they skied with M.  They readily agreed and for the next hour and a half, we four did laps on Supreme: dodging rocks on the cat track, cruising down Rock N' Roll and then ducking into the gate at the bottom for some off-piste playfulness.  N and T loved skiing in there and when we met back up with the rest of our crew, they convinced their dad to do one more run in there with them and H.

Motley crew

With everyone's legs a little fatigued, we called it quits a little earlier.  We skied out through Sunnyside and took the rope tow across to Wildcat base where we had parked.  For the record, the rope tow was a big hit with the younger members of our group.  From there, R's family returned their rental gear and then we spent the evening at home with yet another delicious pasta meal from C.

That was the end of our whirlwind week.  H got in ten days of skiing; we got to spend time with good friends; and I didn't have to cook at all.  I call that a happy new year indeed.