SNOWBIRD, UT — Snowbird hasn't received a significant amount of snow in ten days, and it shows. The snow on the lower mountain was disgusting. Actually, I wouldn't even call it snow--it's slush. Snowbird's the only ski resort still open in Utah, however, so I can't complain.
April 2006 Skiing Archive
April 28, 2006
April 28, 2006
April 21, 2006
April 21, 2006
SNOWBIRD, UT — The weather was nice and, as usual, I had the day off (Fridays are basically part of the weekend on college campuses), so I decided to go skiing again. Why not?!
April 20, 2006
Spring Groomer Day
SNOWBIRD, UT — Today I surpassed my personal high number of ski days in a season. Although it's certainly important to me that I broke my personal high, its significance extends beyond the numbers. This season is significant because it's probably the most ski days I will ever get the chance to have until I retire. I mean, almost half of my ski days this season were weekdays, which were made possible by my lax graduate school responsibilities. By the time next ski season rolls around, I should be fully employed, which will afford me much less free time.
April 13, 2006
Fair Weather Skiing
SNOWBIRD, UT — Today was my thirtieth ski day of the season, which ties my personal high set during the 1998-1999 ski season. Of course, this season was much different than that season. I skied most of my days during 1998/1999 ski season at Bristol Mountain, a 1,200 vertical foot hill with a late-December through (barely) March ski season. This season, I skied all of my days at Snowbird, a 3,240 vertical foot mountain with a late-November through May ski season. Bristol Mountain also had night skiing, whereas Snowbird doesn't (at least not on its main mountain). If Snowbird had as much night skiing as Bristol (90+ percent coverage), I probably would've reached 30 ski days by mid-February instead of mid-April!
April 9, 2006
Spring Skiing at its Finest, Part 2
SNOWBIRD, UT — Brendan, who hadn't had a real ski day in nearly three weeks, sacrificed a great ski day yesterday to teach his Indian engineering colleagues to ski on the Chickadee run all day and night. To make up for his missing yesterday, we decided to ski a half day today in the afternoon, after the sun had softened up the snow. Presumably, the snow re-froze last night, which could cause some pretty nasty conditions in the morning. We figured the best bet was to go in the afternoon when the conditions would surely be decent, rather than risk "wasting" the day skiing crappy conditions all morning only to tire by the time the skiing got good.
April 8, 2006
Spring Skiing at its Finest
SNOWBIRD, UT — Today was one of those warm, sunny spring ski days that I've seldom had the opportunity to enjoy during my years of skiing back in New York.
April 6, 2006
A Ski Day Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing
SNOWBIRD, UT — Brendan and I had anticipated another epic mid-week powder day today, but that turned out not to be. Snowbird got about a foot and a half of snow, and the blizzard still raged, but there's not much use in that fact when you can't access any of the snow. We boarded the third tram of the day, but a minute after departing, the tram stopped, dangled there for a minute, and then retreated back to the tram center. Closed due to high winds was the verdict.
April 2, 2006
Spring Powder Day
SNOWBIRD, UT — Over the past week, Snowbird got over three feet of new snow. Most importantly, it snowed all day yesterday and some last night, so there would be some new stuff to ski today; however, I wasn't sure how much of it would be fresh. Although the new snow wasn't dry, light powder, it still was respectable.