Day 10: Altahoics Anonymous

Around different ski areas across America, I had notice a peculiar sticker every now and then. It would pop up on cars and helmets and me not being from the west, it took a while to figure out. The sticker was finally explained to me by a fellow ski patroller in college; it was for people who had experienced the magic that is Alta. Apparently, if you went once, you were hooked for life.

After that point, I had made it a priority to learn more about this mythical ski hill. The words from everywhere were more than glowing. Between the terrain, snow conditions, and lack of crowds reported in the reviews; I had heard so many great things about the skiers-only resort of Alta, I knew that no matter what this was the one mountain I definitely had to do.

Alta is actually right next the Snowbird resort in the little cottonwood canyon just outside of SLC. Benton and Briana had decided to stay at Snowbird and let Grant and I go explore alone and we would all meet up at the end of the at the Alta Peruvian Lodge for a beverage in their bar that featured free appetizers at their après ski happy hour.

Grant and I road up the front facing lift to the top, admiring the extra sparkly snowflakes once again. We noted to each other all the good terrain and snow conditions along the way to the top that we wanted to hit up, but noted that the area seemed small and that is was good we were only spending a day there. We did a run down the West Rustler Bowl and headed back up and noticed this time that perhaps there were some other runs on the back of this mountain as a sign pointed out “To Sugarloaf”. We skied to the back only to have the back of the resort completely open up and reveal an addition 3 more areas to ski. More than tripling what we had seen in the front.

Grant and I did some exploring and found a steep canyon/gulch that created a natural half pipe and several hucking points that Grant and I absolutely loved (him hucking, me piping). In fact, we loved it so much that we did several laps discovering all the idiosyncrasies of the runs and hitting up all the interesting new parts that we would suddenly see. I love knowing a run. Really knowing it; all its bits and pieces and making it your own. It was hands down my favorite part of the day.

After we had gotten our fill, we headed over to farside of the mountain and up the Supreme lift to do the shoots that we had eyed from Sugarloaf. It was pretty late in the day so we were nervous that the lift would close before we made our way out there, but were stoked to find out that we had just squeaked in. The snow was in great condition since it had been warmed by the sun all afternoon and we had a great exploration run, a real one to be done again sometime on a future trip. Hopefully soon since I think I may have what the members of the Altaholics Anonymous have. . . . . .

We had a few more traverse runs as we made our way back to the front of the mountain and down toward the Peruvian lodge for free hot cookies before the bar opened. We found Benton and Briana and headed up for Utah-style beverages (aka, pretty weak due to their mormon drinking laws), we got our fill of poppers, wings, and shots.

The night ended back at basecamp with a Stolichnaya sponsored Girls vs Boys euchre tournament (that ended in a draw, which of course please everyone). Good times for sure.

Day 9: Bluebird Snowbird Day

The next morning we woke up early so we could take advantage of the free breakfast and make it out to our next basecamp so I could unload necessary items such as my violin and computers before we headed out for our first day of Utah skiing.

Our hosts for the next few days in Salt Lake City were my friend Benton, his girlfriend Briana, and her brother Kyle. Benton was another connection I had made during my time in Telluride last year and is a fantastic skier. We had had a great time skiing together in the past so I was super pumped to get to do so again in a new place, especially since SLC was his new hometown hill for the season.

Now Utah is said to have the greatest snow on earth. They are so confident in their claim that they actually put it on all their license plates. Even as you look at the snow driving o the mountain or off the chair, it has a beautiful sparkly characteristic that occurs from the flakes being so incredibly large. Neither Grant nor I had ever had the chance to ski out there to see if it the claim was true, so this day would be our special Utah cherry poppin’ day.

Benton and Briana are generally forest fire fighters and had taken the season off from work to take advantage of the half-off season pass special Snowbird has for our nation’s finest. They were experts on where all the good spots were at the resort and were great guides as they took us around the mountain.

We ended up skiing in the morning on the sunny side of the mountain: Mineral Basin. This was after I completed one of my life’s greatest goals, which was to ride one of those magic carpets that they have on the super beginner’s run. Except it was way cooler than I could have ever anticipated. The magic carpet went through a tunnel that they had blasted through the mountain. I was almost giddy with excitement as I road the magic carpet for the entire 4 minutes it took to get to the other side. Magic carpet on bucketlist. . . . check mark!

The rest of the day, after the sun had warmed up the snow on the front side, we went out and skied the Peruvian Gulch for several laps. I found some nice trees to duck into where I found some soft powder to go through. Trees + powder + my new skis made me one happy girl!

Afterward, we had a few après-ski beverages in the basement bar before heading home to make a delicious spaghetti dinner. It didn’t take long before everyone slipped blissfully into a ski-tired and bellyful-of-food coma for the night. I think we all dreamed happily about how great the day had been.

Day 8: Utah and Golden Retriever Mystery Skiers

After a solid day (and night) in Telluride, we slept in again, mainly because we had to wait till the Hop Garden opened since I had accidentally left my card in the bill holder. After re-accounting the night’s festivities and laughing, Ben sent us to try some of the best breakfast burritos in town at the Butcher and Baker Café. If you haven’t had a breakfast burrito with sausage, eggs, cheese, black beans, corn, sweet potato & salsa, you must try one. The sweet potato un-expectantly kicks it up a notch!

After retrieving my card and thanking Ben and Brr-ett for all their hospitality and good times (as well as Ben hooking me up with my new rockstars!), Grant and I had to move on to our next destination: Utah.

So at this point I should explain who Grant is and how he became the guest skier on the trip. On Cheryl’s Cowgirl Weekend, the ASTs of Houston and Orlando gathered together for a weekend of country fun. During the night we went to Rebel’s Honky-Tonk off Washington, we met a bunch of dancing fools who with complete careless abandon were ripping it up on the dance floor. Poorly. Extremely poorly. We were just out to have fun and were completely amused with the Elaine Bennett style dance that was exhibited by this group of guys. Between the dancing and the mechanical bull riding, Grant asked if he could take me to dinner. I warned him that I had school and was moving to Seattle in 3 weeks. He insisted on getting my number.

Fast forward several dinners and finding out the he was a crazy skier from Washington State, it was decided that he was coming skiing with me.

Now Grant is one of the happiest people I have ever met. He has an enthusiasm that is contagious and is constantly laughing and smiling. Even when skiing you can hear him through the woods whooping and hollering with joy as he bounds down the mountain. You just can’t help but get caught up in it. I told him he was like a big happy golden retriever and that I was going to refer to him as that. He even found that amusing.

As we drove from Telluride to Utah, Grant was super excited to show me Moab and Arches National Park where he had several great mt biking and camping excursions in the area. It was my first time out there and I was so excited to have such a fantastic guide.

We did a short hike and tried not to kill ourselves on the extremely icy trail and red rocks around sunset. As it was starting to get dark and late, we opted to get a hotel with a hot tub to make up for the fact that on the trip up from Taos to Telluride I didn’t get a chance to relax at the hot springs in Ouray.

Despite that it was only drive day with no skiing, it turned out to be a pretty great day :)

Day 7: Rockstar Skis and Elk Red Curry

After an exhaustive drive to Montrose for both Grant and I (him via Denver and skiing all day in Copper), we both needed to sleep in and get a good shower in before we started for the day.

We accepted that this was going to be a half-day ski day since I had some very important business to take care of and that was the business of picking up my new rockstar skis.

When I knew that I was moving to Seattle, I did what any proactive person would do. I bought a ski pass and started to look for new powder skis. I’d gotten a few recommendations online through friends and read reviews on different skis, but one stuck in my mind: The 2010 Rossignol Voodoo Pro BC 110. . . .

Ski magazine ranked it in the top 5 powder skis and gave the following review: “The men’s version, the S7, is reputed to be the most stolen ski at Snowbird, which tells you a lot about this cult favorite. The Pro BC has the same sidecut and construction—rockered at the tip and tail, traditional camber underfoot—but at a (slightly) saner width. The rocker makes it one of the easiest to smear through pow, but costs it edge-bite on hard snow. Powder chargers will love this ski. Just lock your ski rack. “I knew there were bumps underneath, but I just didn’t care,” said Loring.”

Other reviews such as Ski Diva and others favoring skiing in the Pacific Northwest had this ski as their big mountain powder ski of choice. I knew I just had to have it. There was just one problem. This ski had been so popular that everyone had sold out way before the ski season had ended and no one was getting rid of them since they loved them so much. I scowered the internet and even enlisted the help of some of my search-savvy friends. I even started calling resort ski shops as they opened for this season to see if they were selling last year’s demos. No luck. It was simply impossible to find.

That is until my friend Ben in Telluride gave me a magic phone call saying he knew a girl who was selling hers and they were the perfect size 166. The magic number I had been looking for.

In addition to finding me my perfect ski, Ben was a strong supporter my Epic Farewell to Texas Ski Trip and had offered to let Grant and I couch surf for the time we were in Telluride. We of course arrived with appropriate couch surfing currency (beer and wine) and we dropped off our stuff before heading up the mountain.

Grant went off to get in a few runs while I got the skis re-mounted and half an hour later I was ready to test those puppies out!

The skis are quite a bit longer than my all-mountain hard-pack skis (my beloved K2 Lotta Lovs), so the turning took a bit more to get used to. But when they hit the powder, that is when the Voodoos shone like a rockstar. They floated effortlessly in the few powder stashes we were able to find and the rocker took away the knee strain of doing powder in a traditionally cambered ski. I’m a total convert, rocker all the way!

We finished up our Telluride ski day with a nice short hike up toward the Palmyra Peak and skied down on La Rosa just short of the closed gate. I got a text message from Brr-ett, another friend I had met last year in Telluride saying to get to the Hop Garden for beer and apps.

We continued the fun back at Ben and Brr-ett’s apt while we waited for our dinner reservation time at my favorite restaurant in Telluride, the Thai place called Siam.

Triina and I last year had the most amazing Elk Red Curry and I had been thinking about it ever since I left Taos. Brr-ett’s girl friend joined us and we had an amazing family style dinner of assorted curries, noodles, and a bottle of Saki.

It was a near perfect day in Telluride: blue bird skies, great food, friends, sticks, and skiing. Who could ask for anything more?

Day 6: To-Hell-you-ride, you say

The 6 hours drive after the big snow turned into a 10 hour drive. It sucked. That is all I have to say about that.

The only good part of that day is that I picked up my secret guest skier in Montrose; a golden retriever named Grant.

Day 5: No Friends on a Powder Day

When we woke up we were gearing up for a very exciting day of skiing the 15 inches of freshies that had fallen that night. Matt and Triina decided that it was best to skip making breakfast in the shed (the day prior breakfast had taken 4 hours to make. . . . .) and get burritos on the hill so that we could make first chair.

Note: Triina and Matt live in a shed. With no plumbing. Here are pictures:

Clearly I did not stay in the shed (three of us in a twin bed would have been tight). I couch surfed in the condo next to the shed that was occupied by some of the their new friends Rachel and John, a brother and sister duo. The couch was the perfect Anne size and I slept super good, which is key to stayin’ healthy.

I was super excited to show Triina all my favorite runs and why I loved the Taos ski valley so much. I had been the push behind her and Matt coming to work at Taos in the first place. I talked that place up so much. However, this was not an ordinary day, it was a power day. And everybody knows, There are No Friends on a Powder Day. Its each man for themselves to get their own first tracks.

Because of that; Triina, Matt, and I rode for a total of 3 runs together the entire day. The first run we did the big front facing run under the lift called Al’s Run. Its bumps and powder all the way down. Its incredibly steep at parts which is why we had to do it immediately. Al’s Run is good for a total of 3 hours max even after freshies because it gets skied out so fast. We bumped it out top to bottom and then I had to go in to get some powder skis. The K2 Lotta Loves were not cutting it. 15 inches requires a fatty.

I picked up a sweet little ski called the Nordica Nemisis and headed back out. I did a few runs by myself to test them out, and then I eventually found Triina and Matt. Triina had to go get a face mask so it ended up being Matt and I for the rest of the morning.

We skied the front side all morning till the extreme cold forced us to get some hot drinks and chocolate turtles before going back out to discover that they had just opened up the backside of the mountain. Fresh tracks everywhere.

Triina never found us till after we had warmed up, but had been at the right place at the right time and had been one of the very first people to hit up backside. True to powder day matra, she took the freshies over finding us. Matt and I couldn’t blame her. We both confessed we would have done the same.

She was on her way in when we found her. Completely freezing, but willing to do 2 more runs with us to show where the good snow was. After that it was just me, Matt, and the new runs that they opened where we then got our first tracks in. we kept saying, “one more run, one more run” until we too finally also succumbed to the cold and hunger (no time for food on a pow-pow day). We went in to meet a happily powder fulfilled, yet still cold Triina for lunch/dinner at Tim’s Stray Dog Cantina.

We stuffed ourselves with green-chili burgers and then headed home to watch the torch light parade and fireworks before settling in a solid and well earned nap.

At 10 we decided it was time to go back out. The party seemed to be all around at multiple places, but we took a chance and went back to the Stray Dog. This turned out to be a fantastic idea.

No entry fee, a pumping DJ, and best of all: 2FDP. (FYI: 2FDP = 2^nd Floor Dance Party) We had the funnest time, just crazy dancing with the ski bum locals (Triina and Matt’s fellow co-workers). We also met up with the Condo kids that I was staying with, so it was just a big group of friends celebrating. All I could think of was how lucky I was to be celebrating in a ski town and how lucky I was to have had such a perfect day!

2011 was starting off amazingly. I could already tell it was going to be a good year ;)

Day 4: The Story of Taos

The story of how I first came to Taos, New Mexico seems to be one of fate. It was one of my first weeks of work in Houston and I was super missing winter. I had a terrible time adjusting to it being 60 degrees in January and there being no snow and more importantly no skiing (even though my co-workers were still wearing Columbia parkas like it was -10 outside). One Tuesday morning I was feeling particularly unhappy and I was like, ‘Whoa, I need to get out of here fast and get me to some winter or we are not going to make it.’ I googled the closest ski area to Houston and it brought up the little know place of Taos Ski Valley. I had never heard of Taos or that there was skiing in New Mexico. I had assumed I’d be driving to Colorado and thought I was in for a 22 hour drive by myself. Taos was 16 hours, so that was a significant improvement.

I went to my boss and told him that I needed to get out of Houston for the weekend and that I needed to flex my time. I must have looked like a person on the edge because he didn’t even hesitate and simply asked if I thought I would be back by Monday. I told him I would try. . . . . . .

With work taken care of, I went back to my desk to figure out the logistics. I found a cheap place to stay at the local hippie hostel called the Abominable Snow Mansion in Arroyo Secco (I rented a shed for $20 a night) and then saw about getting a partner in crime for my adventure. My ex-boyfriend Punkin was game and he bought a last minute cyber-saver ticket to Albuquerque for Thursday night.

That night I went home and packed up my car with my skis and snow gear. The next day I took off after a half day of work which started the first pilgrimage to Taos. . . . . . and that was the start of many great memories.

Taos is the last great adventure I had with Punkin. It’s my happy place when I needed to day dream at work. Taos is where Gareth and I first got together. Where we ate the best meal ever of sweet potato gnocchi. It’s the place where we did our first shotski with the Cuevo people and shared with the entire bar the hottest bloody mary ever made. Its where I first appreciated green chilies. It’s the place that kicked up my skiing several levels at ski week. Its where I first was able to hike and ski backcountry. My first steeps. The beautiful views from Kachina peak. The hot springs we hiked to. The hippy compound we stayed at. The beautiful sunshine of the blue bird ski days that was typical each day I skied out there. It was the hunting for soft snow through the trees. The endless mogul runs that were such a challenge. . . . .

Taos is my happy place and I love every minute of being there.

My first day back, I took Triina to some of my favorite haunts. We walked around town and ate at Graham’s Grille that night, (ironically Triina and I were seated at the exact table facing the kitchen that Gareth and I did 3 years prior). We ate an incredible meal – Triina with Salmon and me with Duck and Gnocchi. We watched the snow fall and talked about how great the powder day was going to be tomorrow.