2011 Ski Park City Utah
(3/9/2011 - 3/13/2011)
2011 Ski Park City Utah(3/9/2011 - 3/13/2011)
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On 3/9/2011 (Wed night) - 3/13/11 (Sunday morning) several of us met in
Park City, Utah (the Salt Lake City area) to go skiing. Here is who showed up:
Me (Brian Wilson), Mike Chow, Brady Nilsen, Brian Wohletz, Karl Dohan, and Garth
Eliason. Below are
some pictures from the trip. Click on any picture to get a HUGE version of that
photo.
This trip (with this group of friends) is an annual trip we have taken for 14
years. Each year we decide a new location and all meet there. Here is the list
of locations and the dates we skied there.
Ok, on to the pictures! Our first day we skied at "The Canyons Ski Resort" which is right outside of Park City Utah. Here we are in the access standing chair thingy that goes from the lower parking lot up to the main ski hill.
Another picture in the same spot as we depart the parking lot.
Brian Wohletz's profile, we're coming up on our first ski run.
Mike Chow below, you can see the main resort in the left of the picture.
After that lift, we take the next more traditional lift up the mountain. In the chair behind me you can barely see Brady, Mike, and Karl.
Zooming in here are Brady, Mike, and Karl riding the lift behind me.
Finally, at the top of "The Canyons". Brian Wohletz on the far left in red, Brady, Mike, and Karl.
A close up of our group, same order as above: Brian Wohletz on the far left in red, Brady, Mike, and Karl.
A couple runs into the day, and here we are in a steep chute in the trees. So much for a slow warm up day for me. :-) That's Brady in the distance below me.
Click the picture below to play a 90 second YouTube video showing our group skiing down a long flat access path at The Canyons Ski Area in Utah. It isn't very exciting, but it introduces our group. :-) If you want to watch the very high quality original movie click here (it is QuickTime, so it will not play on a Windows PC.)
About to go down "Deshutes" double black diamond, that is Brady on far left, Karl, Mike, and Brian Wohletz in red.
A nice picture of the resort area below and the blue sky above.
That's me (Brian Wilson) picture by Brady Nilsen. s
Below is a panorama of "The Canyons" ski resort in Utah, the light is a little "flat" at the end of the day but you can still see how pretty the whole thing is.
The next morning (Friday, 3/11/2011) we get up in our condo in Park City and drive 50 minutes to the Alta ski area which is right next to the Snowbird ski area and nowadays you can buy a shared lift pass and travel back and forth between them. Below is an early run at Alta where Mike fell down in some cement like deep snow. :-) Brady is poking him with a ski pole and laughing.
Mike getting up out of his hole.
A quick picture of our group at the top of Alta. From left to right: Mike, Brady, Brian Wohletz, Karl.
This picture has me in it at the far right, so from left to right that is: Brian Wohletz (in red), Mike, Karl, Brian Wilson (me) on far right in blue.
For an extra $24 you can get a lift pass that allows you to cross over from Alta to Snowbird. Mike, Brady and I decided to ski both resorts, so here we are crossing over into Snowbird.
Here is the gate where you can cross over from the Alta Ski Area over to the Snowbird Ski Area and vice versa.
A panorama from the top of the Snowbird Ski Area in Utah. Very pretty, lots of sunshine.
There is also a 600 foot tunnel connecting Snowbird to Alta. It is called the "Peruvian Tunnel" because is connects the "Peruvian Gulch" on the Snowbird side to "Mineral Basin" on the Alta side. Below I took a picture as we ride through it. The "magic carpet" we are standing on is soft rubber and takes you through while you listen to music and read the plaques on the wall. It is kind of surreal.
Click the picture below to play a 90 second YouTube video showing Brady, Mike and I taking the tunnel from the Snowbird Ski Area to the Alta Ski Area in Utah. It isn't very exciting, but it kind of gives you the feel of what is is like. If you want to watch the very high quality original movie click here (it is QuickTime, so it will not play on a Windows PC.)
Below you can see Brady (and Mike behind him) in the tunnel on the magic carpet ride from Snowbird to Alta through the Peruvian 600 foot tunnel.
Along the way they play music, and you can read silly little plaques like the one below that says "Unfortunately, we did not strike gold or silver during construction."
One of the signs in the tunnel (pictured below) says "You are now halfway through the tunnel and 200 feet underground."
The picture below shows the exit of the tunnel into Mineral Basin in the Alta Ski Area. The tunnel starts at the top of the Peruvian Lift in the Snowbird ski area.
A little later on, in front of us are two ski patrol with a "sled" between them on the chairlift. The sled is to get injured skiers off the ski hill safely. (Click here to see my friend Paige get taken off another ski hill in a sled a few years ago!) This shows how the ski patrol takes the sled on the chair lift, there is a removable metal arcing handle that sits on the chair where a skier's butt normally goes.
Below is Mike on the left, Brady on the right on a "two-banger" old chair lift.
Brady on the left, Mike, and Brian Wohletz standing in red jacket at the end of the day at the bottom of the Alta ski area having an apres ski beer in the sunshine. Life is pretty good. :-)
A panorama of the same thing as above, end of the day at Alta ski area, where you can see more of the mountain and people on the deck. From left to right in the picture below is Brady looking down, Mike in goggles, Brian Wohletz with hand to the face, and on the far right is Karl in the beard.
A random guy at Alta ski area after a day of skiing, he is holding up the X-ray of his arm which was dislocated today. You have to give the Alta hard core skiers props here, he was in high spirits and willing to pose for the photo below. Alta - no place for pansies. :-)
On the final ski day of Saturday, March 12th, 2011 Garth showed up to ski with us at the Park City Ski Hill, so we have the FULL GROUP below, from left to right that is Karl, Brady, Brian Wohletz in red, Mike, Garth in Orange, and Brian Wilson (me) on the far right in blue. You will notice that only Brady and I do not wear helmets. (sigh)
A lift line at the King Con ski lift at Park City Utah. This lift is a detachable SIX PERSON chair lift, it HOOVERS people out of the line and up the hill. This was only a 5 or 8 minute lift line, it is amazing how many people a detachable 6-person chair lift can move.
At lunch there wasn't much seating inside, so we sat outside on the deck in the falling snow. We have plenty of gear and are dressed for it.
There are five "Adventure Alley" areas at Park City: 1. Powder Monkey, 2. Blaster, 3. Detonator, 4. TNT, and 5. (unknown, could not find it!) We found the first 4, below are the pictures. First is "Powder Monkey" seen below. The Adventure Alleys are marked by big metal toothed PacMen, which seems kind of dangerous on a ski slope but I guess nobody has died yet running into any of them.
Each exit of the Adventure Alleys in Park City are marked also with the same metal toothed PacMen.
Here we found "Blaster Adventure Alley" at Park City Utah ski area.
And here we are in front of Detonator.
Silly pose of our group.
Finally TNT.
A picture of the town of Park City Utah taken from the ski area on the last run of the day (and last run of the trip).
At the end of the day, here we are at the "Town Lift" in Park City. The chair lift goes right down into the town, very convenient. We then went on a tour of the High West Distillery which is right across the street from the "Town Lift" in Park City. In 2007, High West became the first (legal) hard liquor distillery in Utah since 1870.
On Sunday morning, 3/13/2011 here I am driving back to Salt Lake City from Park City Utah. Time to fly home. The view is very scenic here.
All done!