Monday, February 15, 2010

Goal Accomplished! 23,250 Vertical Feet

Thank you George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, two of the USA's greatest leaders, for having birthdays so close together thus causing the creation of President's Day, a national holiday in the middle of prime ski season. Do you know what that means? Lift lines, for the entire long weekend.

Yesterday wasn't as bad as today, probably because some people were still traveling, and tomorrow probably won't be as bad as today because some people will be traveling back home. But today... I'm officially proclaiming my spoiled-ness. I haven't had to wait more than 30 seconds on a lift line before today. I'm estimating that I waited for about an hour on lift lines today. But, that is the reality of skiing, you can't go down unless you go up, and there's not as many choices for up as there are for down. Darn Newton and his law of gravity!

Needless to say, I am glad Mom had the brilliant idea of skiing at Deer Valley this entire long weekend as opposed to Park City. Deer Valley has a limit to how many tickets they sell on any given day. Knowing this, we got on the "early" bus at 9:15am and were at the mountain by 10:00am. We were lucky we got to the mountain "early" because Deer Valley reached capacity today. After taking off our boot protecting cat tracks and waiting on two lift lines to get up to the top of Bald Mountain, it was 10:30 by the time we started our first run, Tycoon to the Sultan Express lift. After we came back up the lift we decided to go down Stein's Way, a black diamond (!), the top of which is along the ridge of Bald Mountain. All I can say is, what a view! It took my breath away. See for yourself.



Mom and I even successfully got another Mother/Daughter combo to take a picture of us along the ridge with the gorgeous view in the background!

Mom and I decided that on this beautiful sunny day (we've been getting a lot of those) we would head over to Lady Morgan and sample the groomed run of the day, Magnet, another black diamond (look at us go!). After Lady Morgan we ventured to Empire, Flagstaff, and finally Bald Eagle Mountain to get us back to the lodge. We hit five out of six of Deer Valley's peaks today! We were moving all over the mountain, and it all flowed seamlessly.

Because we started our day earlier than we have been, and because I skied until 4:20 (Mom stopped earlier), I was able to ski enough that I reached my goal of 20,000 vertical feet in a day! 23,250ft to be exact! Getting up early was totally worth it. For the record, my legs/ankles/back are tired! To celebrate my accomplishment, Mom and I relaxed for 30 minutes in the hot tub overlooking the nature preserve at our condo. What a great way to end Valentine's Day, with my original Valentine, my mom.

Tomorrow it's back to Deer Valley to steer clear of the Park City crowds. Until then...

4 comments:

  1. What a great view at Stein's Way!! Can I say that I am so impressed with how much you're skiing?... that is amazing! When you say that you reached your goal of 20,000 feet, do you mean that you skiied 20,000 feet??... or that you skiied from that elevation? Either way, they are both impressive! I'm glad to hear that you and Judy had a Happy Valentine's Day. xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. 20,000 vertical feet, not actual feet skied. Feet skied would be more. Vertical feet is measured up and down.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I haven't been skiing on a President's Day weekend since...well, I want to say since the very first season I went skiing! I can't stand crazy lift lines. The week between Christmas and New Years is also bad and I haven't done that in a long time either, thankfully.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's such a bummer to waste time on lift lines, but unfortunately sometimes you just have to suck it up.

    ReplyDelete