Skiing powder

Reading my blog you might have never realized that I'm a skier, and there is a simple reason for this: I haven't skied in over four years. Yep, I haven't gone skiing the entire time I've had a blog. Now that’s just sad. I am a fairly competent skier and have skied since I was three, but because E doesn't ski, and because it is so expensive, we rather snowshoe in the winter and save our funds for international travel.

That said, my brother Brandon gave me a ski day for Christmas. This included a ski pass, lunch and an entire day with my brother. Brandon is an excellent skier, and a skier that knows all the secret spots at all the Utah resorts. How does he do it? Easy, he gets paid to ski every day. He started his own company a few years ago where people from out of town pay him to be their guide/teacher for the day. Because of that, he knew all the best places to hit, and even knew some of the people in ticket sales so we got a sweet deal on our lift tickets.

Our day started when Brandon picked me up from the ski rental shop and we headed up the canyon in his car. The day was snowy. I was a little excited about the fresh powder, but also a little nervous. Deep powder is hard to ski through and not for the faint at heart. Soon we were there and Brandon wasted no time breaking me in. Our first run was a black diamond with Brandon said I did “excellent” so we upgraded to out of boundary double blacks. Now I’m not that good of a skier, and this was extremely difficult skiing. I had to concentrate the entire time on keeping my body forward, taking small quick turns and staying out of the trees where things got even trickier. The powder was deep and untouched in places, which is any skiers dream, but choppy in other spots.

After about six runs we were tired and stopped for lunch. Brandon took me to a private club at Brighton where we both ordered huge sandwiches (I ordered a French Dip and he got a Philly Cheesesteak).

After lunch we returned to the slopes and continued our outing. Skiing with Brandon was very rewarding. It was beyond difficult, but it is so good to talk to my brother. We don’t see nearly enough of each other, so an excuse to spend the day together was awesome.

Oh, and the weather was something to behold! The day started out gray and snowy. By mid day the sky cleared to pure blue and the sun came out. Brandon could not believe that we were going to have a powder day with clear skies. Soon the skies clouded over again, then the entire resort was cloaked in fog. And then, twenty minutes later, we had sun again. The entire time I was thinking about how beautiful it was. All the trees just glowed in their heavy white blankets. Little nooks between the trees were perfect and untouched, and the mountain peaks all around me shone when the sun hit them. At times, when I was skiing down the run after my brother, I felt like I was on a cloud. I hope he felt the same.