tyler and mark in utah 2005

Hello fellow readers, yet another powder day was upon us this 19th Dec of the great year 2005. Again, Tyler and I awoke at around 7 am to find that Alta had received 15+ inches of the greatest snow on earth. Sluggish from sunday's snowbasin powder day, it took us a litte longer to prepare for our trip to Alta. For those who do not know, Alta is a skiers only resort and its tallest mountain stretches to roughly 11,000 ft. The weather for the day was SNOW, SNOW and more SNOW. We found ourselves skiing most of the day in the clouds with sustained 20-30 mph winds. Although we found ourselves in a harsh environment, we thrived knowing that the deep snow would sustain us. Although the snow was deeper at Alta, we found that it was much more crowded and tracked out sooner than snowbasin. Therefore the resort of choice up to this point has to be snowbasin. Overall though, Alta was a blast and both tyler and i had a good time.

Tyler and I had initial intentions of staying the whole day, but after tyler had a little incident and gave his knee a little twist, and myself being exhausted from the previous day we knew that we had been beaten by the mountain gods and cut our losses at 1:30 PM.

So here i am now sitting at 9 PM MST, writing this entry, utterly exhausted and ready to turn in. We still have great adventures ahead, as tomorrow we will be heading to MOAB, the mountain bike capital of the world. Two national parks are nearby, Canyonlands and Arches. We'll spend 2 days there, seeing what there is to see.

Having a blast like every year i'm out here, trying not to see the end.

Signing off for now,

MH

another first for me today: visited a ski-only resort - alta. lots of great snow :]

twisted my knee just before lunch. no worries though, it wasn't too bad and i'll have time to recover as we are going to moab tomorrow and staying til wednesday. we'll do some hiking which will be like rest for my knee after all this downhill action.

here's a pic of us riding up the chair at alta. if it was a movie, you'd hear avalanch control cannon blasts and happy skiers below.

mark and i went to the roxy chicken jam at the park city resort yesterday. lots of world-class lady snowboarders pulling tricks on two jumps, a rail, and a quarter pipe. i got a gift for heather there.

got arby's afterwards and my sandwich had a tiny little spider living in it. mark ate the spider on a $5 bet.

Alas, after much anticipation our hopes and dreams of a perfect powder day have become a reality. At approximately 6 AM MST, it was crucial to check how much of the greatest snow on earth had fallen. At first glance my reaction was of dissapointment, but scrolling further down the list of world class ski resorts at www.skiutah.com , SNOWBASIN had received 11 INCHES of brand new snow. Things were set into motion after receiving this delightful snow report. After scurrying around for our ski paraphernalia, we were off to the resort. Every minute of the car ride was in anticipation of making first tracks on an untouched mountain. Arriving at approx. 8:50 with lift lines opening at 9:00 AM, our only wait was a uncrowded lift line and a few short minutes to the top of Needles. Surveying the ground from our gondola, we watched other delighted skiers make powder turn after powder turn. Now it was our turn as we exited the Gondola at roughly 9,000 ft. Our first run down the mountain was an answer to my snow prayers, as i was able to make dozens of my own powder turns. Nothing can come close to the sensation/feeling of floating down the mountain. It was quite simply put, heavenly. Our whole day was a blur, and before we knew it, the lifts were closing. Tired, exhausted, sore and cold we still felt regret as we made our way to the car, not knowing when our next powder day would be upon us.

Signing off for now,

MH

went to snowbasin today 'cause they got 11" worth of powdery powder.

that's me, trying to avoid trees, keep my skis attached to my boots, and smile, in that order.

Today was our first fine day of skiing in Utah. We visited the Canyons, and i gave tyler his first taste of skiing out west. We started with a few warmup runs, mainly off the Murdock lift on the far right side of the Canyons. Oh ya, almost forgot, Canyons is the largest ski resort in Utah. After our "warmup", i had decided it was time find some of the Greatest Snow on Earth. Our quest for this rare snow placed us in the heart of the Canyons "off the beaten path" trails, mainly labeled with "EXPERT ONLY, ski with caution" :-) . Our first trip down into the trees, resulted in multiple crashes by both Tyler and I. At one point, Tyler took a nasty fall and both skis ejected, resulting in one staying in place, and the other flying down the mountain between the dense trees. Quickly reacting, and learning from the best in business ( Mr. Uncle Colin Hilton), i knew that i needed to chase that ski down, or it would be lost forever. Thankfully, i was able to spot the buried ski shortly after the incident, and we were on our way again!. Our final destination, put us at ninety-nine ninety, touted to be the most advanced terrain that the Canyons has to offer. We both skied this mountain as if we were skiing back at home at Bristol Mountain, PEICE OF CAKE!

Signing off for now,

Ski Bum #2 (mark)

we skied at the canyons today. it's only a 10min drive. we did some tree skiing, some moguls, ~5 different lifts, and reached a height of 9990ft above sea level. as of 5pm MST i'm beat.

this morning we picked up the rental car, got groceries, and did some exploring. here's a pic what i saw out mark's uncle's back window when i woke up.

chicago had bad weather so we had to fly to san fran via dulles instead. here's a pic of us flying over jackson hole, wyoming.