A little change from the normal Swim, Bike, Run this past weekend. I don’t get a chance to do this often but I was up in Utah this past weekend skiing at the Canyon’s Resort. I normally get 1 or 2 ski trips in a season and this was my first one. I generally go with some of my work friends and this one was no different. Just a short weekend getaway. Unfortunately Melanie couldn’t make this one but she’ll be with be with me when I go back soon. It was pretty typical for our normal weekend trips: arrive Thursday night, ski Friday & Saturday, and then leave Sunday.
Lodging
The hotel wasn’t anything special. Just a Residence Inn by the airport. But that’s part of why we love Salt Lake City. You can stay in SLC for pretty cheap and easily drive to many different resorts from there. So the hotel was pretty much surrounded by industrial parks but we were there to ski afterall!
Skiing
Conditions were…not great. It was very warm when I landed in SLC. It was actually colder in Tampa when I arrived than SLC. The slopes were not much better. Many trails had very thin cover and there was a fairly large amount of slush. Even though I was skiing with basically a long sleeve tech shirt and a jacket with all the vents open, I was sweating the whole time.
But apart from the less than ideal conditions the skiing was actually decent. Both days I got 12 runs in and skied almost 40 total miles. The Canyons have a great mix of slopes so there is really something for everyone. I stuck mostly to the advanced and expert slopes though I didn’t really do much on the blacks on this trip. Mostly kept to the blues & double blues.
I was pretty happy with the decision since I really got a huge number of runs in compared to everyone else. If I had to rate my skiing though I’d ony give it a B- at best. I was doing well but I was taking some runs a bit more tentatively than I would have liked. I think its time for a new pair of boots. I just don’t feel that comfortable at high speed in my current pair.
My favorite run would probably have to be Cloud 9. I did that one 4 times and it really was the best challenge vs my abilities. The Drop, the only black run I did, was a close 2nd but I really wish I’d been able to really let myself go a little harder down that one especially.
Dining
The first night for dinner we really wanted to try a brewpub called The Annex by Epic Brewing. Unfortunately due to some kitchen mishap we couldn’t get in and settled for some fairly average burgers. It was good but I don’t even remember what it was called. Saturday night we did make it back to the Annex and got in this time. This was a great way to end the trip so it really worked out well for us. The beer was really good. The first one I got was the winner of the night (a coffee stout). The foot also was excellent. My dinner was a duck breast that was perfectly medium rare with a nice crispy skin. Dessert was a bit of a letdown. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t live up to the rest of the meal!
And just like that, the trip was over! I did get a quick run in on Sunday morning before my flight and I managed to discover that my legs were pretty much shot after 2 days of skiing. I originally wanted to do 8 miles but settled for 6 after I realized I was running with lead weights on my feet.
