Deer Me!

Up near 615am, it was another bluebird start. Sweet! Enjoyed conversation with David while sipping coffee and woofing down a banana. Anita was the only other up before I left on my run. Think it was near 7am when I headed out the door.

I ran to the north (downhill) again, only this time a lot further along Park Ave past Olympic park then back. I opted for a winding tour of the road which I assumed leads to Deer Valley. Cut back towards the house and the connecting running trail once I spotted familiar terrain. Once again, I was gassed!

All were up having breakfast and coffee. Before having any food, I rushed off for a shower. I was ready to go in record time. We wanted to leave the house a little earlier than the two days before since we had to drive a little further to Deer Valley, though as it turned out, it wasn’t any more than maybe two miles. David and I loaded the skis to speed things up a bit. I think we left the house at 845am.

Deer Valley has an excellent reputation for first class groomed skiing. They also don’t allow borders and have a limit to the number of lift tickets they’ll sell on any given day. We had little to no wait at the ticket window. Soon off to the slopes. We asked one of the many friendly ski hosts for help navigating to the sunny slopes Glenn spotted from the ski park’s center. His thinking was to ski the sun soaked slopes early on for the softest snow. Good point!

We had to take two lifts to get to the area. Lost Glenn along the way. Eventually learned that he ducked off to use the john. We found some incredible groomed blue and double blue runs with ideal snow conditions. Eventually hooked up with Glenn again. Ultimately made our way to the two lifts/runs at the north end of the park (abut Park City) that were steep and really sun soaked. Stunning, amazing vistas, too!

We skied that area for an hour or more. Found lots of powder caches along the runs sides. We were having a ball. As much as fun as we were having, we didn’t want to spend our entire day on those slopes alone. We agreed to make our way back to the center and southern part of the park.

Again, we found some incredibly fun runs – part through the trees with powder and then some cool blue steeps with shelves and curves. Glenn & David raced down top to bottom a couple of times. After 4 hours of hard skiing, we opted for a break at one of the many fabulous ski lodges. Mindy and David came back with some very tasty food. Mindy got me a burger that was delicious. Apparently all of the food is prepared by gourmet chefs. Certainly no complaints here. We ate outside at a sun soaked table. It was warm in the Utah sunshine!

After one or two runs, brother Tommy called it a day and phoned Anita to come and get him while the rest of us skied on. We made our way to the middle park where we skied some double blues and blacks – all groomed, however. It was there that I took a spill, my very first of the entire ski season. I was a little discouraged afterwards but also grateful that it was an easy fall – no pain. Still, I simply don’t like to fall. My pride was at least temporarily damaged. Truth be told, I was getting a case of sloppy foot, too. After 3 days of hard skiing, my right leg, especially was feeling the fatigue. Not making excuses, but likely the reason I fell in the first place.

We skied a couple more double blues before all of us agreed to call it a day. It was close to 330pm and the only reason we would continue on was ego. Everybody admitted to feeling the fatigue. We had a blast at Deer Valley. Definitely worth a return. While waiting for Anita, Mindy and I headed in the gift shop. Mindy bought me a ballcap and pin.

Back at the house we all got in the hot tub. It was only Tuesday and Glenn had already made one hell of a dent in his quart of Jack. Once again, we dined at the house enjoying loads of snack type foods. Wednesday was our planned day off. Expecting a large snow storm of 5-10” of fresh powder arriving later in the day. From our vantage point, that would set us up nicely for our next ski day, which would be Thursday at the Canyon’s. We watched a little of American Idol from the livingroom but then to bed by 9pm. Mindy and I watched a little bit of the Olympics from bed, but I was out cold well before 930pm.