Chapter Four: Performing
Sunday February 22
Yet another Bludge Day. It was snowing quite heavily, I was tired, and today was the fateful day that another condo-dweller was leaving: Mike of the East was taking his recalcitrant leg back to Oz. I got to crawl around the furniture, finding all his stuff he’d strewn around...I think we got it all. After he left, I did some condo-cleaning and other assorted domestic stuff. Russell and Craig returned from Snowbird where apparently the skiing had been pretty good.
 He’s in there, somewhere |
 Russell |
Monday February 23
 I thought I was being inconspicuous as I sidled up to the Canyons Ski School Moose. But he saw me... |
Canyons again! Bob rang at breakfast time (HELL-oooo. It’s Baaaahb here. Where
you guys planning on heading today?) But the Canyons didn’t attract him. It snowed all day, and was rather chilly (i.e. it was bloody cold). Spent the day cruising about, found a few interesting little runs about knee-deep which was quite enough for me. Russell and Craig would go the alternative powder routes, and I spent a lot of time waiting for them at the bottom. Russell also managed to hit a tree. Russell was rather annoyed about this. The tree’s opinion was not available. It was raining back in SLC, and we met up with Bob and Irene at Crustys for the obligatory wings. |
Tuesday February 24
It was snowing heavily. We had nominated this as a shopping day, and I had to book a flight to LA. Craig went to Alta for the morning, returning at 2.45pm, and we quickly hit the shops. We checked out the Patagonia factory outlet: even their sale prices were through the roof! For confirmed Patagonia fans only. Then Nordstrom Rack, which is the clearance outlet for the Nordstrom department stores. .
| Russell and I had good hunting here. For $17 I got a purple Columbia fleece: on returning to Australia, I saw the same ones for sale at Perisher for $120...Russell bought about 50 000 shirts. Then the SDI outlet. Great place to get souvenir t-shirts for the resorts you’ve been skiing (and some you haven’t!) without paying resort t-shirt prices. It bucketed snow all day right throughout SLC |  We got a *lot* of snow! Condo. |
Wednesday February 25
We had planned to ski today, but it dumped snow all night - the media people referred to it as a ‘storm’. Finding out whether we could get up any of the canyons was quite a job. We got our gear and headed for the Solitude bus. Getting the car out of the condo complex was interesting; Russell and I pushed and eventually the car was dislodged.
| My Suzuki would have enjoyed that snow but the little sedan wasn’t too happy about it.. We sat in the bus for a bit, but listening to the driver’s 2-way radio and speaking to him and others, it became evident that even if we got up the canyons, we’d only get in about 1 hour’s skiing. So we gave up, and went shopping again! That night I had a nice chat on the phone to Tabi in New York as Russell was headed there next. |  Russell yet again; this is Art as it’s in black and white. |
Thursday February 26
Again, it bucketed snow all night. SLC was having severe problems with this amount of snow. It was good stuff, too. Huge fluffy flakes.
   Russell at-it again |
We had arranged for RSA Invasion to be printed on the lift tickets at Alta today: Craig and the Eds went there, and Russell and I decided to check out the dreaded Brighton, Haunt of the Snowboarders.
 Kindly donated by Good Ol’ Ed |
We took the bus to Brighton, which turned out to be a very nice, very quiet place, with runs nestled in the fir trees, plenty of people but no crowds, and rather ancient facilities. Plenty of skiiers, too! It was the coldest day I’d experienced on this trip, and even with poly-pro thermals and boot warmers going full-bore, I had to go and thaw out a couple of times. It kept the snow very light, however, and Brighton don’t groom everything, so I finally worked out this powder stuff. The trick was to keep turning! Constantly. It was rather nice but very tiring. We caught bus back, and heard on the radio that an avalanche had closed Little Cottonwood Canyon (where Alta is). |
We couldn’t get a taxi, couldn’t find out if there were any buses, and so ended up walking from Fort Union to the Condo, which was a bloody long way, especially as half the footpaths weren’t cleared. We were stuffed by the time we got home, well after dark.
   More Russell shots |
Friday February 27
Russell was off to New York, and left fairly early. Craig left for Oz a bit later, and there I was, in sole possession of the condo: first to arrive and now the last to leave. It seemed very empty and lonely: the snow had finally stopped falling, and the town was unfurling itself and squinting in the sunshine. I went to Wal-mart, then went off to find a post office as I had a number of t-shirts to send. Hellavawalk.
| Feeling very lonely indeed, I rang Bob to see if he and Irene would like to brave my cooking. They didn’t feel that brave, and so they drove across town, picked me up, and we spent the afternoon at their place: I hopped on the net, watched TV and had some beer, feeling very authentically American! I shouted them dinner (it was the very least I could do) and then they drove me home to the deserted condo. The snowman was melting, as all his friends had gone he might as well too. Russell rang from New York, terribly impressed with the place (Tabi had organised her friends to show him around). Then TB rang too, so at least I had people to talk to. |  He’s not the Prophet, just a very naughty boy. |
Saturday February 28
Up at 4am: cold and dark. The airport shuttle was on time, so I left SLC in darkness. I defy anyone to feel happy when riding in a taxi out of town before dawn! I got to see a bit of America as my flight was via San Francisco. LAX was fun, finding the correct building to get my flight home particularly so. I got to observe a mad Chinese couple having a doozy of a fight: airport security were standing around in bewilderment. The lady was still screaming abuse when my flight was called. I had scored a seat upstairs, where there was no smoking section, so it was rather nice. At Narita, I rented a little bathroom and sat in a Japanese bath for two hours, then the plane to Sydney was only a third full, so I got the 3 window seats to use as a bed: being short is very handy in these situations. Sydney airport was an embarrassment, with huge queues, people missing flights, and a brawl at the Qantas/Eastern Airlines ticketing counter. There was six of us with ski bags, so we banded together and exchanged notes on our respective trips. The others had been to various parts of Colorado and Europe, and it sounded like Utah was the only place with good snow.