I'm repeating a day here because Paul went out skiing on the Thursday of the storm and I didn't. I'm extremely glad I didn't - it was very cold, with poor visibility; this photo, taken by a friend with whom Paul was skiing, gives some idea of what it was like.
This is the sort of weather where Paul wears several layers of clothing under his ski anorak, and puts on a neck gaiter, a balaclava and a face mask. I can't bear the idea of a face mask, the prospect of having to cover my face to protect it from freezing ice spicules does not appeal to me at all! Also I like to be able to see where I'm going. When you ski in bad light like this, you often can't see much of the surface ahead of you until you're actually skiing on it, which I find quite worrying.
Of course, the easy slopes on which I ski aren't likely to conceal any dreadful cliffs - unlike the places where Paul skis.
This is Paul and another friend, standing on a very high trail, as you can see. I am never likely to be found on high slopes like these.
After the day of snow on Thursday, the weather was lovely on Friday so I went out again. You get some spectacular views from the bus as you climb up into the mountains. The road the bus takes up to Alta goes into Little Cottonwood Canyon, and as it climbs up the canyon, you can see back down towards Salt Lake City.
The city sits in a sort of bowl, surrounded by snow-capped mountains on all sides.
As we climbed, we reached the area where the previous day's precipitation had fallen as snow, rather than the rain that fell in Salt Lake City. On the lower slopes, we entered a scene out of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, with all the trees coated with snow as though they had been sprinkled with sugar icing.
The dots at the foot of my photo are markings on the bus window - this is a photo taken from the bus.
As we climbed, we reached an area where there was more wind and the trees were no longer sprinkled with snow; however, you can see the start of some of the ski runs.
As you can see, this is another photo taken from inside the bus.
It was a beautiful day, and I was prepared to enjoy the skiing. Unfortunately, quite early on, Paul's skis became entangled with mine when we got off the chair lift, and I fell heavily and bruised my coccyx quite badly. As we were still up the hill, I had to get down somehow, in spite of the pain in my tail - and a twisted knee. To add insult to injury, there was so much blasting going on - avalanche mitigation - that the trail I had intended to use was closed and everybody was directed down a somewhat steeper slope. Quite a few people were in difficulties, some of them lying on the slope, and one elderly couple took off their skis and climbed down it. I got down somehow - partly sliding down on my extremely painful backside - but the fall had destroyed my confidence and I couldn't bear the thought of falling over again. So I stopped for the day and Paul went off to ski with friends after lunch. We met again on the 3.30 bus back to the hotel, where I was sorry there was no mantelpiece at which to stand and eat my supper - I was finding it quite hard to sit down!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment