Mark, Larga Vida en Mi Corazon! March 21, 2022

This has been a frustrating year. I’ve skied less this year than any in the last 25 years. I blame it on the re- emergence of a harsh, arrogant, self-serving human instinct that is now all the rage across America. A bad element of humanity that was pushed down as unacceptable just a few years ago is now acceptable and encouraged by certain powers of society. In Utah it has created a strange inconsistency in spirituality and politics, yet the majority of Utahns continued to combine their spirituality with bull-shit politics, which has me mystified and wondering how that juxtaposition is reconciled in their minds? At some point one wonders just where they (me) belong?  

What does this have to do with skiing? My employer of 30+ years fully embraced this ‘me first’ mentality and, in an attempt to increase share value, consolidated offices to increase bottom-line performance by 1/1000 of 1%. I lost my 30-yr career due to my position being transferred to Houston. Texans tell me that  Houston is the 'Paris of the West’ (hemisphere not America), unicorns and rainbows around every corner, the women all are beautiful and the men stand straight and tall, yet, and I say this with absolutely NO disrespect, face it, Houston is for fat cowboys and career shit-heads who think the purpose of life is to only make a dime. I just could not see myself ever living in Houston. In early 2020 I said “NO thanks" and took another job in SLC. That new job came with a significant cut in pay and with a significant cut in vacation, and, believe me, going backward from eight weeks of PTO to just two weeks is tougher than the loss of $$s. In addition, at the same time my wife developed some serious health issues which made work very difficult, so, in early 2020, we were slammed with a perfect shit-show, bind-sided with health uncertainties and a double-hit to our income. To make up for the loss of income, in addition to my day job, I took on some freelance work requiring time during evenings and weekends, and thus, my ski-time has been severely diminished. 

Incidentally, now, after 2.5 years of testing the ‘me first’ theory, the share value of my ex-employer did not change. Other than the typical mirroring of the normal ebb and flow oil & gas prices, shares have remained stagnant. 

I’m not skiing nearly enough but I still try to get out in short bursts when a few hours open. It got cold this weekend and it snowed up high, very wintery for this snow starved winter, so today (Monday, March 21, 2022) after working half the day I headed up Bountiful Ridge to ski some of that new, cold snow.

Yesterday’s new snow was powdery on the skin up, and it looks powdery here, but, when skiing down, it felt sloppy, grabby and trippy. The hard base was becoming unsupportable in the afternoon sun. Look at the last photos (end of post) for evidence of my ugly turns.

KPF, the deepest, least brushy I’ve seen it this year.

Snow stake rock, still mostly buried.

109cm (43in) at Rudy’s Flat. 

Skinner up the old route from Rudy’s up to the ridge, the open slope seen here it the ski run I call Tele Hill (aka Face-plant Hill). It’s on the west side of the ridge above Rudy’s Flat, at the SW end (lowest end) of Bountiful Ridge, the terminating end of Bountiful Ridge. 25 years ago this was the only way I’d skin up, but over time I got smarter and, to minimize trail-breaking, I started putting my skin-track up near the hill I planned to ski that day. Now in the spring I go back to this route. When the snow is consolidated and trail-breaking is not an issue, I go back to Face-Plant hill because it’s the shortest route up the steepest face below the ridge and the shortness minimizes the crampon work often required when conditions transform to hard, crusted snow.

A quick, cold storm yesterday left about 3 inches of dry powder on top of the hard crust. I worked the morning, I didn’t start hiking until early afternoon, and I was racing the sun . . .  and I lost. The snow was dry at the start, still powdery while skinning with my ski slipping when on this steep side-hill (40 degrees) due to the powder not sticking to the crust (I forgot crampons), but by the time I topped out to ski the powder had turned to cement and the crust now grabby. My turns shown in the last photos are erratic and sloppy and I’m blaming the hot sun.   

City Creek Cirque way below. The south faces melting fast. 

Along the ridge headed toward Rectangle Peak, hidden by the Mahoganys on the right. 

Blacks Peak barely visible middle-right, the white spot just above the brush.

City Creek Canyon on the right, North Canyon on the left, my skin track seemingly pointing to the City Creek Cirque, the distant face barely discernible here because it’s so small. It’s not really a valid ski destination when one can ski Bountiful Ridge.  

Oquirhs through the legs, view SW down City Creek Canyon.

Busting through the cornice at the top of Scott Cutler’s Yellow Coat (ski run out of view to my right). 

The toughest challenge all day was pulling my damn skins . . . 

 . . . so for the next one I removed the ski first. I may have been born stupid but it’s getting better. When skins are new and the glue is clean, and there’s no wax on my skis, those things are welded. The sticky is perfect when they hold onto the ski while hiking yet are easily removed without dismounting from the skis. 

Wearing my brothers shirt, which I inherited 28 years ago (tomorrow) after his passing. I’ve taken it on every ski outing since he died and I’m shocked it is still holding together. It is full of holes and it is threadbare, it offers almost no insulation, but it brings warmth in indescribable ways. 
Mark, larga vida en mi corazón!

Wow, I’ve never seen such ugly turns, even from my tele days. These photos were taken a week after I put-in these tracks and a week of sun didn’t make these turns any less ugly.