Utah Trip Last Week

tirolerpeter Glad to see that there is someone older than I doing this thing!!! I try to keep in mind, however, the adage >>There's no fool, like an old fool.<< as I age. Your conditioning program looks very interesting. I have a hard time sticking with exercise equipment , and alas my waist line shows it. Anyway, your experience nearly drowning in snow may help you if you get caught in an Avalanche. I want to add some comments on that here. First of all once you spend some time at terrestial altitude, you should be learning something about these beasts of nature. The avalanche that took out the lodge and lift line in the Sierra's happened at Alpine Meadows. I saw pictures in Newsweek of a memorial they had on the tenth anniversary of the disaster. Try picturing a group of still youthful snow bunnies and ski bums with missing limbs. Some party. On another topic, did you find your helmut a hinderance when floundering around in the snow? I wonder what a hood with a mouth hole and helmut might be like in such extreme situations. I'm not comfortable with a helmut. They increase the possiblility of serious neck injuries for one. I will wear a hood if it is raining or snowing out. However, I prefer hats as they have the optimal visibility range. I was rear-ended somewhere in Utah once by some wild-eyed punk coming out of my blind side going into a powder bowl. He took air off of the lip without knowing who was in the area. The deep snow saved me from serious injury, but since them I am always leary about my periferal vision. When I played American football with a helmut, my coach (a very capable Canadian football league vetran) was always instructing me to keep my concentration on my periferal vision.

Oh, and where did you find that >>Skier's Edge<< machine? I want to look at it.

[tirolerpeter]

Beswift being an old fool doesn't mean you have to be "foolish." I don't jump, but do catch some air at times. I avoid doing it until I have skied the trail at least once and can see the landing conditions and/or have a companion spotting, and never on a trail with traffic. I also will not put myself into any type of "out of bounds" situation if there is the slightest danger of unstable snow conditions that might lead to an avalanche. I really like wearing a helmet and I cannot say that it was an issue one way or another in my "near drowning" situation. Also, I do not think that I would try anything "adventurous" in extreme cold or wind conditions that would require a facemask. As to peripheral vision, my helmet does not change what I see through my goggles or when I just ski in sunglasses and, I always keep "scanning" around me. Ironically, the worst injury I have suffered while skiing in Utah was on a lift line. I was nearly stopped and just turning right (and looking that way) onto a lift line at Alta when some asshole came flying out of the woods and through the line. He mistakenly thought he could get between the last person and me. I was totally blind-sided. He scooped both my feet out from under me and dropped me right onto my tailbone! I am still unable to sit comfortably in certain positions nine months later. I should have taken his name and sued him!
While exercise just for the sake of it is difficult to get motivated for, I am really pleased with the results, and that fuels my determination to stick with it. In the past year I decided to reduce my weight from around 175lbs for the last 35 years to around 162 - 164lbs; and, my waist size from a snug 34" to a loose 33." (I am 5'6 1/2" tall and have a rather solid frame.) I did it following the "Weight Watchers" program (although I did not attend the meetings since my wife is a very successful and knowledgeable practitioner thereof) but it did not "tone" me the way I liked. Adding the exercise did the trick. The goal of improving my skiing form and stamina is what drove me initially, and now I just like feeling good. I also am getting nice comments from others about me appearance! Go to: skiersedge.com to see the ski machine. I have the Classic Carver model because I was concerned about headroom in my basement family room/gym. I could actually have gone to one of the taller models but didn't know that when I was trying out the machine. It really didn't matter, because this model works just great for me. I also added the RPM platform, and the Slope Simulator. I definitely feel these are essential accessories that move the machine from just pure exercise to skiing specific muscle training. Click on the picture of the guy on the machine to see it animated. I did not bother with the "assistant coach" or "buddy bar" attachment since I use the poles. I find that I can knock of 100 "turns" (a complete left to right to left cycle) without the poles, but it is much more physically challenging then with the use of the poles. Repetitions are more important in exercise than absolute skill. In a 45 minute to 1 hour session I do 1000 to 1200 "turns" in 200 - 300 turn increments alternating with about a total of about 100 crunches, 100 pushups, and upper body weight reps. I try to keep my heart rate at around 135 - 140 during the entire session. Beyond stamina, I have found great improvement in balance. I believe the slope simulator is the key here. Don't laugh, I can now easily stand on either foot and put on a pair of socks without holding on. Gotta run. More later if you are interested.

[ChileMass]

tirolerpeter - what happened to SnowBasin? I thought you were gonna try to go there, and I was looking forward to a trip report.......!

Your trip sounds like a lot of fun. Haven't been to UT since '98, so I gotta get back out there again in the next couple winters.....

[tirolerpeter]

Yo ChileMass as I said in my report, on day three we rested and took a ride to scope out some real estate investment possibilities up near Snow Basin. While we were in the area we drove up to the base lodge at around 11:00AM. To our horror, it was raining! We intercepted a young man just walking toward the parking lot obviously leaving and asked about conditions. "It s.......ks, the snow is heavy, wet, and sticky nearly all the way to the top." The big storm was centered to the south and the areas at Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons are at higher altitudes. In fact, instead of going back toward Ogden, we headed east toward Park City, and it was sort of rain/sleet there too. That settled the issue for us for the next two days. That was when we decided to stick to Cottonwood Canyon and had our awesome day at Brighton on day four. I will plan to get out there again this season and I'm sure conditions will improve as the winter really gets going.

For a short time I worked at the Blue Hills Ski area in Milton (actually a part of greater Boston). It can get very crouded with kids and has a surprisingly steep slope for a Southern N.E. area. The guy who ran the place at the time told me that he kept his binding settings very low because he had been hit so many times in front of the lodge at the bottom of the hill. Funny, but I avoid lift lines like the plague, I try and keep moving at all times around the lodge and never stop and chat there. However, the most dangerous place for me has been exiting the lift. I won't bore you with some of the incidents, but one of my worse injuries started by getting a pole caught in a chair and having a shoulder ligament torn. Most people think that most fatal collisions for skiers would be with trees. That is no where near the truth. Man-made objects are behind the vast majority of deaths on Ski slopes. I don't jump on skiis like I used to, either. A couple of years ago I broke both wrists and bruised a rib when I fell from the trees while working. That radically changed my feelings about heights.I never have been tempted much to go out of bounds, especially after some of the horrendous experiences I have had with snow and cold. It's been five years since I have been in the Rockies, but every year I read about someone who dies in an area that I know which is either out-of-bounds or a wilderness. One must take risks, however, but setting realistic goals and understanding the rewards would be very important in taking them.

[tirolerpeter]

Beswift, I hope your "tree" jumping accident didn't sap your confidence to take on steeps too much. I too have taken a number of pretty tough hits (a couple on the slopes) over time. Maturity tends to instill a bit of extra caution in us, but when we get our timing and rhythm nicely tuned up, we can still make some terrific runs on challenging terrain. An occasional "out of bounds" foray is fun when there is not much untracked in-bounds snow around, but I don't do anything stupid and always err on the side of caution. I once had a windbreaker catch on a mid-station get-off at Vail that took me about ten feet up in the air before I managed to wriggle out of it and drop. I wasn't hurt that time, but a few more seconds would have lifted me out over a serious drop. The attendant was doubtlessly focused on the "snow bunnies" in the chair behind me and never saw anything! I also had a woman skier, who was stopped at the edge of a trail, suddenly slide right into my path just as I caught an edge and was sort of dancing for control. I hit her squarely, spun around, and went into a backward snowplow. I thought I had it under control when my right heel binding let go and dropped my forehead down on ice. After I regained consciousness, I refused help but as I skied down to the base realized that I was going into shock. I skied right to the front of the aid station and dropped to the ground and announced my problem. They took me to the local hospital, and held me for observation. I didn't know which way was up for about ten days! I now tend to announce my presence to stopped skiers rather loudly these days. Of course, since I rarely ever ski week-ends, this is much less of an issue. Ain't retirement great.

Actually, it is the accidents that

instill a bit of extra caution in us

IMHO. Possibly we could match story for story, here. However, I would like to offer one anecdote. I spent a year living at the Shussbush an A-frame in the Sugarbush South Basin. Since I worked that season at a local ski shop, I had free access to skiing all three areas there. One day in January I believe, I spent a very tough day in large icy bumps which had a little fresh powder on them. I had priviledges at the Sport's Center and went into the Steam Room after skiing to help my bruises and sore muscles. It was crouded with silent burly men, and the visiblilty was fully obscurred by the steam. Usually once you spend some time in a steam room, your eyes become accustomed to the poor lighting and you can discern your fellow bathers' faces. Anyway, someone asked me if I had skied and what it was like that day. It was a Friday as I remember and many had not arrived in time for skiing. Somewhat proud of surviving the day's challenges I said that I finally knew what the expression Seeing Stars meant as I had seen stars while skiing from slamming into these solid moguls. The guy next to me replied after a pause,

Stars, ya, I know what that is like.

and shook his head in a resigned gesture nearing despair. I looked closely then at him and my other companions. Suddenly the steam cleared for me, and I realized that I was in a group of New England Patriot football players.

[tirolerpeter]

Beswift we could keep swapping stories ad nauseum, but its clear to me that you have much more "outdoor" life experience than I. Funny coincidence here. I once got on an elevator with my (then) small sons at the Crystal City Marriot in VA and found myself among the largest humans I had ever shared an elevator with. It turns out it was a group of Patriot players heading up to their reserved floor in the hotel. I no longer feel the need to defy icey moguls. It is no fun recovering from bruises (much less potential breaks) just to stoke my ego. I do enjoy challenging runs, but not to the degree that a mistake could be catastrophic.

Certainly I have some elevator experience, too. Funny, how many famous people with which I have rode elevators. I once went to a Superbowl game in New Orleans, Steelers and Minn. in '73 or '74. I didn't know there were so many big people in the world. The French Quarter was wall to wall with HUGE fans and supporters. I'm 6 feet and 200 lbs, but I felt dwarfed. It's unfortunate, though, but no matter how careful you may be, some accidents are unavoidable. That doesn't stop me.