Utah - Best Snow On Earth!
The week after moving in to my new apartment I had to go back to the US - one week for business, and then I thought I’d take advantage of the peaking ski-season and extend one week for pleasure...
The ‘business’ part was back in Portland, and it was intensive but interesting. Despite a tough programme I managed to see a lot of my old friends and colleagues, and generally had a good time. It somehow felt like coming back home, and with Tomek and Camilla both there, it almost was... I landed at 11pm on Friday night, and was greeted by the two of them at the airport. I stayed with Tomek, and the next day we met up at 6am to go to ski Mt Hood Meadows - and it was awesome. It had just dumped a bunch of snow, so the lifts were quite cramped though... Sunday the company had organised another ski-trip for all of us taking part in the training the following week, once again at Meadows, and once again it was great.
Camilla, Palle, and myself left Portland for Salt Lake City the following Saturday, where we were met by Claus - who had flown over from Europe to ski with us for five days. We spent the rest of the day roaming Salt Lake, shopping some gear and getting ready to head for the mountains. We spent the night at the worst motel I have ever stayed at, about 20 minutes North of Salt Lake and half way to Powder Mountain - the hill we decided to ski on Sunday.
Although it hadn’t snowed for several days we managed to ski some decent tracks down the back-side, from where we could catch a bus that would take us back to the base lodge. We also caught a ride from a local cat-operator up the top of a ridge, but that didn’t yield anything spectacular... The area itself was pretty big and had plenty of decent snow, but it was rather mellow and not very steep. For that reason there are nevertheless not that many good skiers or fellow powder-hounds, so fresh tracks are somewhat more accessible than at some of the more well-known resorts...
After a full day on the mountain we headed towards Alta, where we had rented a cottage for the remainder of the week. The cottage, Travis Home, turned out to be way above our expectations - lavishly furnished, and about three times the size of a comparable cabin in the alps... We skied Alta all days but one, where we drove to Snowbird about a mile down the road. Both resorts are awesome places, and there is just so much amazing and skiable backcountry terrain...
It hadn’t snowed for a couple of days when we got there, so we had to earn our turns by hiking some more remote ridges and backsides, but it was all worth it! And then finally Wednesday it dumped 30cm of the dry Champagne Powder we had came to Utah to ski. That made for a ‘pretty good’ Wednesday, and an amazing Thursday of first tracks under the clear skies... Only regret is we don’t have any photos from that day, as we were busy skiing... It was so good that Camilla even postponed her return flight by a couple of hours, so that she and Claus could hike the other side of the bowl where there are no lifts (but even more potential first tracks...)...
Due to the intense skiing, and the fact that three of us had caught a cold, we were pretty dead when we were not on the mountain - but we did manage to check out what is supposedly the places to be... But being a Mormon state, the nightlife is not very happening in Utah... One of my personal favourites was the outdoor spa at a nearby hotel, where we hung out while it was snowing on Wednesday night.
I got back to Portland Friday afternoon, and had a nice dinner with Tomek and Camilla - who were both off to New York at 5am the following day... I left Portland Saturday around noon, and landed in Singapore Monday morning at 6am - just in time for a shower, and then off to work. I guess that’s the way to do it, as I haven’t had the slightest jetlag this time.
THANKS FOR A GREAT TRIP, GUYS!
Next week I’ll be in Chennai, India, for some technical/ engineering training, and then I’m off to Europe early April - first for EWEC in Brussels, and then a couple of meetings at the factory in Jutland...
I’ll try to update again soon! Drop a comment and let me know how you are doing!
Thursday, 28 February 2008
