Solitude Utah - Day One

As usual, I was the first one up. I didn’t sleep that well, and not much at all after about 5am. I got out of bed around 650am and made coffee. Mindy, I think got up around 745am. I perused the resort map in an attempt to locate the fitness center. I thought it might be at Club Solitude. In hindsight, I should’ve asked at check-in, or even called before we left home to make certain.

I dressed for running on a treadmill – shorts, and a loose wicking shirt. I threw on a pair of long running pants and my jacket along with taking my phone and key card in my fanny pack. I wondered out still not sure where to go. I didn’t take too long to find it. Actually closer than it appeared. The fitness center is small but functional. There was only one other there. He was on the bicycle thing.

I got out of my long running pants and quickly surveyed the treadmill for its operational procedures. I jumped on and ran three miles. The guy on the bike had one of the two TVs on Meet the Press. My view was blocked by a pillar but the audio was loud enough that I could hear it and then some. The topic was gun control. I don’t have a strong opinion on the debate. After my run, I did some dumbbell curls. Like most days, calm overcame me after completing my run.

Back in the condo, everybody was up and Mindy was making breakfast – bacon and scrambled eggs. Smelt good. I was impressed that it was only 830a and everyone was up, eating and getting ready for a ski. I woofed my food then hit the shower.

All of us were eager to tear up the 11” of powder that fell the night before. The last forecast we saw showed snow almost every day for the coming week. As it was, the sky was mostly blue and the sun shining brightly. Could there be a bluebird day in the offing?

We left the condo near 945am making stops at the lift ticket office and then the rental shop for Tommy. Turns out both were attached to the slopeside end of our condo building. Not too far at all.
Tommy rented a demo package for the week, skis pretty much the same dimensions as mine, though not Volkls.

We talked with a ski host who gave us the lay of the land, advising what lifts to take and then what runs to ski. I had to walk Tommy back to the lockers to stash his shoes. We rejoined Mindy and Glenn then headed to the lift. We wanted to ski a green or easy blue run right out of the shoot. We followed the trail map’s guidance, and thankfully that worked fairly well.

We quickly discovered that much like Bachelor, there weren’t many groomer options, at least not top to bottom. With Saturday’s heavy snow fall, most runs were already chunked up powder. Still very skiable and fun. We had fun for a couple hours before Mindy somewhat surprisingly offered that we do Honeycomb Canyon, which required some cat tracking or skiing fresh powder. In retrospect, we [probably shouldn’t have been over there, but Mindy was certain that the ski host said it was very doable. Glenn, however heard something else – all double black diamonds.

Skiing through the knee deep powder, Mindy took a spill after grabbing onto a baby pine only half her height. She recovered on her own after a few seconds. Falling in powder can be a bitch simply because you can’t see your feet. Adding to the dilemma, we really had no idea where we were headed. While Mindy and cross navigated a field of powder, Glenn opted to ski down a blue/black trail, which in hindsight was a far wiser choice.

Mindy took another fall in the powder only this time asking for my help quick. Said she was pretzeled and needed my help untangling her legs. I tried skiing to her aid but while stopping I too took a tumble and literally lost one of my skis. Uh-oh! Not only that, but it was about 10’ up the hill. Luckily, I could see just the very tip of the ski jutting out from the deeppowder. I had to remove my other ski andus it like horizontal pick to traverse the fluffy powder. By then Mindy had managed to untangle herself and now watched as I recovered my lost ski and got back into both. Worked up one hell of a sweat in so doing.
Mindy was exhausted from the ordeal and in no mood for what still lieahead. We had nothing but fresh untracked powder and in the steeps of the trees. The one thing she couldn’t say was that we lead her there. Instead, this time it was Mindy leading us there. I took the lead showing Mindy how to slide sideways down the powder which packed it in a swath as wide as my skis helping her that much more.
We finally could see the intersect to the blue/black Honeycomb trail. We skied through the last 150’ of powder to get there. We skied Honeycomb which was a challenge in its own rightbut after what we’d been through it was like a bunny hill. 

Mindy was tired and wanted to take a break. We had to take another lift ride up, or so we thought, then down to the nearest day lodge. There we happened upon Tommy already basking in the sun. It was supposedly only 19 degrees but the bright sunshine made it feel like 50, which came as a surprise to us all. Also worthy of mention, more GoPro troubles – completely dead, and this after charging it all day Friday before packing. I wasn’t pleased, and have just about had it with the damn thing. A lot of trouble!
We called Glenn’s cell leaving a message as to our whereabouts. Not sure the name of the day lodge. We headed to the upper level and then I went for food in the cafeteria below. We soon learned that the Little Cottonwood Canyon that feeds Alta and Snowbird was closed, and that drove throngs of local powder hounds to the normally docile Solitude and Brighton.

The cafeteria was crowded and the staff overwhelmed and obviously unprepared for the amount of customers. The lines were long and the food pricey and of so=so quality. Pretty much what I expected and very similar to HV. We spent about 30 minutes eating chicken tenders, a brat and drinking lemonade. I was craving the sugar and water components. Among other things, the altitude left me quite thirsty. Signs up encouraging hydration.

Glenn must have gotten the VM we left him. He found us upstairs and enjoyed the remnants of our lunch. Before heading out for more skiing, Tommy headed back to the condo to lose a layer. I asked if he’d take my GoPro back too. Mindy, Glenn and I headed up Summit for more fun. Tommy was supposed to meet at its base upon his return.

We skied the Summit runs a couple more times before Mindy shared that she had sloppy foot and was ready to call it ad day. She skied back to the condo for a nap while Glenn and I skied to the bottom of Summit again to meet Tommy.

Tommy never did show. We sent texts and left VMs. We eventually skied on. About 20 minutes later we finally got a text from Tommy sharing that he was done, too. Glenn and I skied on taking in lifts and runs we hadn’t yet explored. Skied hard until the park closed. Even chased off the long Honeycomb run by ski patrol sweeping that side of the park.

Back at the condo near 430, there was no sign of Tom and Mindy. We assumed them at the hot tub. And as soon as we could get out of our ski gear, we headed there too, but only after pouring ourselves a drink. Tommy & Mindy were already in the hot tub talking with a couple women, who we soon learned were condo owners and presumably well taken care of. One talked of their multiple condos. And both held some sort office in the Solitude area. Plenty nice. One woman was a retired school teacher. She and Mindy chatted it up for an hour or so.

Left the hot tub around5pm best guess. We talked about doing dinner at the resort pizzeria, but not until later. Back in the room we drank more beer and talked about our fun-filled day of skiing. Mindy read and napped, all but finishing her the book she brought. We headed out for pizza near 10pm under a star filled sky. The resort was all but dead. We were the only customers in the pizzeria. We ordered two, one chicken pesto and one pepperoni, onion, and mushrooms. At first we planned to eat ‘em there, but changed our minds while we waited. The tow kids working the pizzeria were fun to talk with. I think they said they were brothers.

Back in the condo with our pizza, we were able to enjoy it with beer and wine. The pepperoni pizza was decent. The chicken pesto was nasty – bland. I ate three pieces. All totaled, I drank four beers after skiing. Around 1030pm Mindy and I peeled off for bed. Tommy and Glenn remained up. Good night moon.