Chapter Three: Norming
(apparently these pics get bigger if you right click or click or something on them)
Sunday 15 February
|
Now Tigger was mobile (he had Wheels!!!), this morning he took me and Russell to
PigoBob’s place, and then PigoBob took us to Snowbasin. Pigo was very restrained when
Russell loaded the snowboard, merely remarking that Russell had forgotten his other ski. It was a nice day, Snowbasin being quite a hike but it was nice to see some different mountains. This place made Alta look like Vail…the dunnies were Atco sheds, the cafeteria got seriously crowded at lunchtime, the lifts were all ancient, and the shop had excellent souvenirs (always the mark of a dirtbag hill) |
| The snow was a funny, floury, sticky consistency but it attracted Bob, who disappeared
into the hills to find bears and powder. The scenery at Snowbasin was really spectacular, and there was nobody there (they were all in the cafeteria). On arriving back at the condo, we found that Dave (an Aussie) had arrived. He’d been in Whistler and Colorado, but was not a happy boy. He’d got some new boots, and 24 hours of work on them later, they still hurt, were so altered that even their mothers wouldn’t recognise them and obviously were never going to fit |
This picture doesn’t do him justice…he is rarely to be found on anything that isn’t steep, a jump, tree-infested or in some other way unpleasant to ski. |
.
Monday 16 February
| Pea-soupy day. Nadine rang early, offering me a freebie at Park City (never skiied there as it was $75 Oz), but I felt guilty leaving Tigger to cruise alone. As it turned out, the little bugger decided to have a bludge day! So, we went to Alta on the bus. Left Russell at Snowbird on the way (boarder) with strict instructions as to which bus we’d be on, he was to wait for that, etc etc. |  Russell doing what
he does while saving up for a second ski. |
Alta was crowded, huge long fat lift lines, rather uninspiring skiing, and no view as it was cloudy. We managed to catch the wrong bus! It was an express that didn’t go to Snowbird…panic! Dave and I ended up standing at the side of the road at the BCC interchange, waylaying each bus and checking it for Russell, while Craig drove the car up to try and find him. Hours went by. Dave and I helped some indigent snowboarders push their car out of the deep snow by the side of the road. More hours went by, when suddenly Russell appeared from the direction of SLC. He’d eventually caught a bus, but got off at the first carpark. So he helped a bloke un-bog his car, and the bloke drove him down.
| We eventually got back to the condo, to find that Mike and Tigger were holding a sly
party! Drinking Yeungling beer were Mr and Mrs Good Ol’ Ed, Glen and Nadine, and
Bewart. What could we do? We joined in. Here are some couchmikes at play…Tigger was lucky to keep his eyebrows. |
 |
|
 |
Tuesday 17 February
| Tigger’s last day!!! Oh no!!! We were going to suffer from a severe dearth of Mikes to photograph, as here. (Mikey, Mike and Tigger). Tigger drove me, Russell and Dave up to Park City, to ski the Canyons one last time. |  |
| Dave needed to visit Surefoot in Park City, to ceremonially discharge his boots at
them. Russell needed to find a post office and other assorted office-y things to arrange a
French visa, of all things, so Tigger dropped them in Park City, and we went off to get a
head-start. It was a lovely bright day, and we had fun, but were in a for a horrible
shock. There was Dave….in soft boots, clutching a SNOWBOARD!!!! He said he only did it cos of his sore feet. We banished him to the beginners area (I found him doing the snowboard thing, sitting on the run some time later, and dutifully sprayed snow on him). |
 |
 |
 |
We then found Gregg Albert in the lunch-lodge, and then Russell turned up, so we all went for a nice ski and photo-shoot. |
Dave joined us, and entertained us on the chairlift with tales of his adventures. "I almost got picked up on the chairlift" he said, while the guys rumbled jealously. "He said his name was Ralph" continued Dave. (sensation).
| We had a nice session in the Canyons pub (great wings), and then back to SLC. Went to
a Mexican restaurant, and, once again, I had the worst nachos in history. We took the
Cripple, but it was all too much for him and he had to be taken home and tucked in. Actually, as these incriminating shots show, Mike was capable of quite a lot but he swore us to secrecy as he liked having the double bed. Sprung, Mike! |
 |
 |
Wednesday 18 February
| Bludge day for all. Tigger left (boooo!) and Dave decided to go with him. Russell and I went to explore the Wal’n’K marts (and deplore the lack of footpaths and snowclearing) but it was a nice day for a walk. Mike sat on his couch (I thought I’d better add that, although this is what Mike did every day. He gets abusive if I don’t mention him). |
|
Thursday 19 February
|
We drove to Solitude for a lovely bluebird day: the resort was deserted, and Russell brought all the cameras to try out. Russell gave the back area (Honeycomb Canyon) a try while I lurched about the easy stuff and admired their main lodge…Solitude is a lot of fun, and was one of my favourite areas on the trip. |
Friday 20 February
Alta today (ordinary weather as usual, I think it has something to do with Alta) to meet up with Glen and Nadine. (Glen took the precaution of arranging to meet the Eds, also). Nadine and I seemed to feel the cold today, and I’m sure that our standing around in the middle of runs talking for hours had nothing to do with it.
We tried to scare the others off to play in the powder, but, like the Cat, they kept coming back. Ed was on some shaped skis today, as opposed to his usual powder thingies, and he entertained us with a string of Royal Christies, a rare sight these days. We only skiied a half-day, and drove down via the Eds; Glen was getting a pair of fatty skis off Ed, who runs a black market in the things. The Eds also proudly showed us their flower, which turned out to be a determined little cream polyanthus, grimly defying the snow.
Glen then showed us to an interesting burrito place, run by a family of Real Mexicans. The food was brilliant! The burritos were huge though, and we struggled to finish them.
Glen had promised to take me and Nadine shopping and sight-seeing (most welcome, I’d only seen the suburbs so-far) and he took us to some amazing factory outlets, coffee-bean places and the Squatters brewpub. He drove us up into the hills where all the nouveau riche build their mansions and we viewed SLC at twilight from up there – very beautiful indeed. We got a guided tour of the middle of SLC, complete with commentary, and in-all it was jolly good fun.
Saturday 21 February
Bob had flu!!! No skiing for him. Today, we drove to Glen’s, and then formed a convoy to Snowbasin. The weather was sort-of overcast and muggy. Glen was trying out Ed’s skis, and we were treated to the sight of a normally messy, careless skiier doing beautiful, ski-instructor-type turns above us. We had some fun at the top two lifts which branch off to go either side of a scenic rocky outcrop, and then went way out to the side, were we could see a huge highway had been groomed. Screamed down that, only to find that it ended abruptly and we had to walk back in to the resort!!!! They’d better fix THAT before the Olympics, huh.
| The cafeteria was crowded as usual, so we had a late lunch. Ever-polite, Glen manages to smile for the camera even when caught with a mouthful of food. |  |
 |
I tend to suffer from cold feet when skiing in the northern hemisphere (I can’t fit socks in my boots, feet are too big), and, as Tabi had left me a large supply of those hand-warmer sachets, I tried some in my boots: brilliant!!!!! Highly recommended. Nadine and me had good hunting in the souvenir place; I’d told her about the Will Ski For Food t-shirts they had, and we both skiied back to the lower carpark juggling shopping bags. We had a Bob memorial visit to Crusty’s but it wasn’t the same without him…
…and so ends the third instalment, with the condo now much depleted in personnel but all was not lost as Shopping had been achieved.