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End-of-season Snow Report

Crazy winter: It seemed like winter would never end this year. It has already snowed once this May. And not just a few light flakes. It came down in clumps and I had to actually clear my windshield before I could drive. This winter was the most snow I have ever seen in Utah. I was out probably 20-30 times with a shovel. But on the other hand, the slopes were fantastic.

Resorts in the north: I waited too late to get in a lot of skiing. Part of the reason was because of my first trip. I found a great deal on a nice pair of Volkls on Craigslist and took them for a run the next weekend with a friend up at Snow Basin. It was my first time skiing up north, but I found it to be about the same distance to the Cottonwood canyons (Snowbird, Brighton, Alta, etc). Snow Basin was decked out! The had everything redone for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Each lodge was upscale and the resort consisted of several 6-man gondolas, where the lift attendants load up your gear for you and everything. Unfortunately, the visibility that day was miserable and I never got a good feel for the terrain and mountain.

Weird crash: That may have contributed to my freak accident. I was cruising down a black at a very good pace. I was digging the new skis. Everything felt good - the wind, trees blowing by... until something caused my rear tips to cross just a tiny bit. You experienced skiers know this feeling - the yard sale. It happened so fast that I really can't remember what happened. Although I flew pretty far and must have at least went head-over-heals, I landed just fine. I popped right up and noticed that either ski was at least 10 meters away. I got my gear together, put everything on and proceeded back down the hill. Suddenly, I had a hard time on the skis. I couldn't "feel" it anymore and I had to take my time. Did the crash really upset my balance or instill some kind of fear? It wasn't until I got back on the lift and looked down at my skis that I realized I had completely broken them. I must have caught just the angle where the release mechanism couldn't release. The right binding had exploded into pieces and the front 1/3rd of my ski was bent up at a sharp 45 degree angle. From my perspective on the slope, especially with the descent angle that was also pretty sharp, I couldn't see the bend until I got on the lift.

Skiing vs. Snowboarding: Bummer! I tried to bend things back. I wedged the skis between logs and was literally jumping on them. I could only bend them a little bit. But it was my lucky day. I brought my snowboard! So before I bore you too much more with my day at SnowBasin, I learn (or confirmed) one interesting thing. After lunch, I popped on the boots and board and hit the very same runs, including the expert-only stuff at the very top right of the resort. Snowboarding is WAAAY easier than skiing. The amount of effort exerted and then amount of technique required is not comparable. It's funny that whenever I say this, snowboarders get offended. They feel like I'm offending the skill that they have developed over the years. I don't look at it that way at all. I feel like it proves that snowboarding is a superior in some ways, given that you can do so much with very little effort. The very same runs that I found myself panting and needing a quick stop on skis didn't even phase me on a snowboard. So anyway, what does all this mean? To me, it tells me that if I'm going to enroll my kids in lessons at an early age, the first thing I will teach them is the harder one - skiing. Get that down first, then move on to the easy stuff.

Skiing and kids: This brings me to my next topic - getting kids started. When is a good age? I've always felt like Taisei is pretty coordinated for his age. And I'm trying not to be oyabaka in saying so, but I really do think he usually watches his step, rarely trips over his feet, can dunk on a full sized rim, do back-flips with his eyes closed, etc. I'd like to give him some early challenges whenever possible. Hopefully I don't get flamed when you see what I did. It was Brett's idea, who is the father of Taisei's girlfriend, R.

Elitist resorts: Alta has a free rope tow that's open until 5pm. One of the mountain lifts is also free from 3 until 4:30. That's perfect for kids that can't take a whole day of skiing. On a side note, I thought it was funny that Alta's resorts were probably some of the oldest and most out of date I've seen. Alta is one of the remaining 3 or 4 resorts in the US that does NOT allow snowboarders. So they basically cater to ski snobs (of which I might have been at one time) who believe that snowboarders don't belong on the mountain. The fact that they don't allow everyone to use their slopes probably hurts their business and maybe contributes to being one of the most ghetto resorts I've seen in a while. So much for the ski snobs. :) I will laugh the day they begin to allow snowboarders.

Taisei in a backpack: Anyway, so I took Taisei skiing at Alta a few times in April. Thanks to our good neighbors for the Kelty backpack. The first weekend, Brett and I stayed on the rope tows. Nice and slow. Taisei seemed to want to go fast, so we moved over to the left side where we were able to catch some air. He enjoyed that. Once the kids got tired, they had fun just walking around with each other all over the slope. You have to be extra careful on bunny slopes because of the overabundance of inexperience and lack of skill.


The next weekend, we went again with mama. She hadn't been on skis for 10 years, but she did great. Right away, we hopped on the lift. I love the relaxing ride to the top, the tall evergreen trees, and the view of the mountains. I noticed that by the end, mama was choosing the more difficult routes down the hill. Go Wami!

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