12/27/09

Day 11

Conditions: Crud, rocks, stumps and dirt

Location: Snowbird, UT

We picked up Craig this morning and headed to Little Cottonwood Canyon for a day at The Bird. The Canyon was beautiful as always, and we practically had the mountain to ourselves. We started at Mineral Basin and worked our way through Little Cloud and Gad 2.

Unfortunately, Snowbird hasn’t had much snow all year. To say we hit a few rocks would be an understatement. We were scraping dirt, hitting wood and riding on rocks. The coverage on Gad 2 was the worst I’ve ever seen it. Still, the packed snow was light and hadn’t been damaged by any warm-ups. The bumps were soft and nice all over the mountain.

Soon after lunch, Craig and I were tired. Dirk, on the other hand, was riding like a rock star and ready to go all day long. We took a nice, long run down the front side and had to call it early because of sheer exhaustion.

Highlight:

Remembering our April trip at Snowbird – days 48, 49 and 50. We had so many great turns and got to see all the runs again today.

Lowlights:

Snowbird is a great mountain. On a powder day, nothing beats it. But as Craig said, “It’s an angry mountain” when it doesn’t have enough snow.

Après Ski:

We watched Stanton start for the Lions on the computer, since it wasn’t televised out here. Yes, they lost. Then, we met up with Craig and Breanne for Italian in Park City. We also watched one of the most depressing movies ever: Wendy and Lucy - it made us miss Little Breck.

Days to go: 39