Quintessential

–noun
1. the pure and concentrated essence of a substance.
2. the most perfect embodiment of something.

Yesterday. The quintessential ski day. Perfect. Beautiful. Fluffy new powder. Challenging runs. Perfect runs. Sore muscles. Hard falls. Tiring. Exhilarating. Perfect.

Today, we are recovering. :-) Rich hurt his ankle. I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Excellent. Perfect. Just the way it ought to be after six hours of hard skiing in powder. I'm saddened, yet happy. Saddened because this will be my last day of skiing for the year, and happy because it was such a great day to finish on. After my procedure on Wednesday, cumadin will keep me off the slopes and away from activities where I may fall hard, for three months - too potentially dangerous. I guess I'll become a runner. :-)

Peace,
Karen & Rich

President's Day Weekend

Rich and I spent a great couple of days down in Bryce Canyon taking advantage of a long weekend. The idea was to cross country ski among the hoodoos and red rock of the amazing canyon. Unfortunately, for skiing, there was no snow! Instead, we did some incredible hiking at Kodachrome Basin State Park and in Bryce. The Fairyland Loop in Bryce was just like a fairy tale - magical. You can read more about the trip and find a link to more photos at our website: www.megalungmtnfreaks.com We keep most photo albums linked there. All the snow fell here in the Wasatch! We came home to about five inches of the white stuff. Too bad we have to work tomorrow and cant take advantage of some nice new powder. Next weekend we'll get up there, but no regrets as we had a wonderful, relaxing time away - it was perfect!

End of the Line

Well, it is the last day of the conference and no snow, so no alpine skiing. Though the mountain looks very nice and skiable (kinda of Deer Valley, meets Blackcomb), sice I have never skied in Colorado, and there is crappy snow, I don't want to bias myself against it. I think if there was consistent good snow here it would be incredible. I think in 5 years it will be another Whistler (over built, crowded and suffering from need for snow). Anyway, maybe I'm biased, from the slopes of Alta and Solitude (retro, quiet, and just skiing, none of the other crap). No pictures today, I forgot the camera when I skied. Skated up the town trail today to the old mill at the top of the canyon. What a great view at the edge of the canyon. A towering bowl of rock and pines about 2000'-3000' high above the town floor. Lots of old mining roads go up. May need to explore in the summer. Apparently there is a running race from Ohrey(? sp) to Telluride which follows the old road up and over the peaks. May need to investigate. Tommorrow it's back to home and the real world.

rk

I'm breathing, but standing still....

Welcome to day 3 at Telluride Resort. Still no new snow, so I decided not to alpine ski again. Today it was off the the upper mountain nordic tracks. A high speed quad ride up the hill had my worried about the dismount, but alas no worries. These are at the 11,200' mark. Hence the title. Seemed to be standing still at times, but breathing awful hard!! I guess that proves my adaptation to high altitudes and the increased breathing rate. Anyway, it was a great loop with some short hills intitially, however the cruel joke was these 200 yard "loops" that they groomed taking you downhill to start, only to turn and make you ski back up. After doing this twice on separate loops, I got smart and decided to look for an exit down the trail to see if I was going to get tricked again. (didn't happen).

After, skiing the Magic mountain loop, I decided to head over and try the link loop as well. Not sure what possesed me to try, other than I didn't want to go down. The ski back to the lift top was all uphill, and at 11,000' this feels like running a mile while breathing thru a coffee stirrer. So the link loop starts with looooooong uphill, basically along side a lift. Luckily in the woods so I could hide my embaresment for moving so slow. Luckily I had my pal Jonny (Cash, not Daniels) on the Ipod to push me up the hill. Once at the top it was a long ski down a green groomer ski trail (5k down) to the connecting links back to the resort. All in all a good ski (about 15k) with lots of good views of the peaks and cirques here at the top of the mountain.

Rumors are that a small chance of flurries will come in tommorrow and put down some snow here at the resort. Not sure it will mean much, but maybe a I'll get one day in!!

rk

Telluride II

Well, after a wohle day here at the resort, I have come to realize a few things. First, there are some VERY rich people in this world. Second, it seems as if they build anywhere they damn well please. The town of Telluride is a quait, old mining town with houses of character, great color, and warmth. Further up the mountain in the Mountain Village, there is just the great halls of timber homes. Very nicely situated, not quite as grand as Deer Valley, but just as expensive and sheik. I'll take the base of Little Cottonwood and my Vanagon for a "vacation home". Well, maybe a newer vanagon?

To the right is the Town of Telluride coming down the Gondola from the mountain village. Nice little system, to get to town and up on the mountain.

Skate skied today, a small loop around the village. About 10k, alot harder at 9000', then at 7000'. Tommorrow I may try to do the upper loop since the is less uphill. If it snows may downhill ski, but well see.

Till tommorrow, here's the town.

rk

Telluride Resort

Well, I have arrived here at The Peaks Resort at Telluride. It took about 6 hours from Salt Lake. WOW, what a beautiful drive!! Not only thru the redrock and cliffs of Moab, UT, but also thru the La Sal Mtns and San Juan Mtns. Driving thru San Miguel canyon in Colorado was awesome!! Redrock walls, tall pines, river along the road...WOW!! The Peaks is a very nice place (not my world though). This is a long way from the farm in Lebanon!! Most of the things here cost more than my whole extended family would make in a decade!? Very nice room, (reminds me of the hotel at solitude on our wedding night). Looks at the peaks (with a crane and construction in the way). The upper village here is very reminiscent of Verbier in Switzerland.

Well, I hope to keep you updated of the time here. Seems nice, but not much snow for 8000' feet. I think Utah wins that battle.

rk

Moonlight, bobsleds and skinny skis

As Rich said, we've patiently (or not so patiently) been awaiting some great snow. In the meantime, we've had a terrific and busy weekend playing outside. Friday evening our friends Tammy and Ian invited us, and a group of friends, over for a full moon snowshoe and munchies and drinks after. It was beautiful! We hiked around the mountains, near their house. Tammy was supposed to race in a bobsled race
the next day, but she didnt get the chance as her driver crashed and was injured on Friday. Rich and I went anyway to see some of the racing, at Olympic Park in Park City. It was amazing. We were about 3 feet from the track as they went by at nearly 80 mph!! What a rush it was, I cant imagine being inside one of the sleds! It gave us a new appreciation for the sport. I met up with Kathy afterward for a 6 mile hike around Round Mountain - very very nice! Today we tried to ski but the weather wasnt cooperating. Instead we did a great hour, 15 up East Canyon on our skinny skis. Surrounded by mountains, it was the perfect place to be.

We can only dream....

Well, another couple small storms rolled thru this week leaving some mid-week powder, but none on the weekend. Still haven't had a powder day yet this year!! Some years it's all you get, some you don't. Oh well. Finally the inversion has lifted, thoug hmay be back this week for a short bit, but more snow next weekend is forecast. I'll be going to Telluride this week into next weekend, so maybe I'll catch some there. No earth shattering news this week from Utah. Still the same old thing. Well, time to hit the hills and find some of the small stashes of snow, that maybe are still hiding (not likely). Until then Still dreaming.....

rk