SNOWBIRD, UT — After a long layoff from skiing on account of the blood thinning medication I have to take, I heard that Mark Deaver would be in Salt Lake City for the weekend so I decided to ignore my doctor's orders and go skiing for the first time this season.
I planned to take it very easy, so I could stay safe; however, on our first run I decided to drop into White Diamond, a steep, but freshly groomed run sharing the same bowl with the Powder Paradise run in Mineral Basin. To my surprise, I skied the run nearly flawlessly. My turns were technically perfect. My run was both exhilerating and calming at the same time. I knew that, although I would indeed make easier terrain choices than a normal ski day, I would ski almost as aggressively as a normal day.
I repeated the same White Diamond run for my second run of the day, with similar results.
One interesting note is that I hadn't even buckled the front buckles of my boots because I didn't want pain so early in my ski day. And yet my performance did not suffer. In fact, it improved. Interesting. (I had also buckled my top buckles fairly loosely.) Perhaps the room in my boots allowed more ankle articulation, which led to turns that felt more effective, more efficient, and more complete.
For our next run, we rode the Baldy Express and skied an easy run back down to the Mineral Basin Express. Mark decided to drop into double-black-diamond High Stakes, which consists of the steep chutes below the Mineral Basin Express lift. I had decided to head back to White Diamond, but quickly changed my mind and dropped into the chutes behind him. That decision wasn't one of my best of the day. I wasn't quite ready for the challenge, so I ended up just getting down, but I didn't ski it very aggressively.
A great run down Chip's, Middle Men's Downhill Chute, and over to Wilbere Ridge got me skiing aggressively again. At the base of the GadZoom lift, we met up with Mark's friend, Bill.
I swooped down Bassackwards, and then followed Mark into Carbonate. Carbonate wasn't that great (it rarely is). The bottom part of the trail was full of big, hard bumps, which I negotiated quite well, but they weren't exactly fun.
Mark is typically up for trying anything, so I suggested he check out the Carbonate Cliffs area. I didn't intend on leading him and Bill into the area, but I figured, "why not?!" First, we tentatively skied through the trees to a spot below a cliff band that opens up to a steep bowl. From there, we each dropped in to the bowl and skied back down to the easy terrain. The conditions weren't that great, but there were pockets of good snow.
After lunch at the Creekside Lodge, we took a quick run from the top of GadZoom down Lunch Run to Harper's Ferry East so that we could cut across to the Peruvian Express. Our run from the Peruvian Express included (for me) Chip's, Primrose Gully and Phone 3 Shot (one of my favorites). I skied each segment of that run back down to the base of Peruvian very well, although my legs were finally starting to get a little tired.
Our next run took us through the Peruvian Tunnel and into Mineral Basin, and then back to the top of Hidden Peak. From the summit, we headed down the Road to Provo. I had a great run down Mark Malu Fork, and skied a bit of ungroomed stuff in Little Cloud Bowl, where I filmed Mark making some turns. Mark and I then headed down Bassackwards and Big Emma. My legs were dead tired at this point, and I had decided to make this run my last. Bill and Mark took one additional run, however.
I was pleasantly surprised with how well I skied, and I had a great time skiing with Mark. I'm sure the excellent weather and the great conditions on the groomed runs contributed to my performance, I still couldn't believe there was so little drop-off in my performance, despite the long layoff. I did stick mostly to groomed runs (something I would've done even if I wasn't taking the medication), but I skied them aggressively.
I really missed skiing, and this ski day felt so sweet. I accomplished my only two goals for the day: I stayed safe and had an awesome time. Hopefully I'll be able to get in some spring skiing in May after I (hopefully) get to stop taking the medicine at the end of April.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★