TR: The June 1st, 11th Birthday, Snowbird Spring Skiing TR That Almost Wasn't
Prologue, Part I: June 1, 1997, 7:36am EDT.
I catch my eldest, whom we shall call Girlie-Girl (despite her newfound affinity for "TeleGirl"), upon her exit from what is euphemistically called the "birth canal." As my wife sleeps, we play into the wee hours of the morning. Years of fun and frolic follow.
Prologue, Part II.
Earlier this season, I get a Utah Fifth Grade Passport for Girlie-Girl to take with her on her annual Utah ski trip with her grandparents. The Passport, for them what don't know, costs $15 (or $25 if you're late) and gives the fifth grader coupons for three days of skiing at each Utah resort. Unfortunately, it only does that if the kid has it with her. And I forget to make sure that she does.
Hilarity ensues as I attempt to overnight it to the grandparents' condo near Jeremy Ranch; in the end, FedEx is the only carrier that claims they can do so for Saturday delivery. But then, FedEx claims they couldn't deliver it without signature on Saturday -- when it could still do good -- but can deliver it on Monday, just in time for her to bring it home, unused.
I Am Not Pleased.
Prologue, Part III.
Snowbird announces that they're staying open Fridays through Sundays, through at least June 1st, and announces some amazing lodging specials to go with it. Then sfotex offers up the remaining days on a 10-day pass, in exchange for a promise to post pictures. And a check of sidestep.com discloses JetBlue's excellent prices on their daily SFO-SLC nonstop, even with only a couple weeks notice. Things are falling into place. I have to rearrange some work stuff, but I manage a one-week advance purchase on two tickets (only $20 more than a two-week advance).
Thursday, May 29, 2008, a.k.a. Girlie-Girl's third-to-last day as a ten-year-old.
I pick her up at school and drive to SFO, where we board JetBlue's daily nonstop to SLC. Three or four hours later -- and 8,000 feet higher -- we check into the Cliff Lodge at the base of Snowbird. She brushes her teeth, turns on her MP3 player, and gets in bed. I text BushwackerinPA: "Got your voicemail. Let's talk in the morning, and plan for 9am tram."
Determining her to be asleep, I turn off her MP3 player and get in bed myself. She later informs me she was still awake. This is plausible, as she's a good faker.
Friday, May 30, 2008, a.k.a. Girlie-Girl's second-to-last day as a ten-year-old.
After a buffet breakfast at the Atrium, we struggle to figure out how one gets from the Cliff Lodge to the tram base by foot when the snow no longer covers the ground and the marked directions would take you through locked doors. We get theres, find Bushwacker, exchange one Passport coupon for a ticket, and board the tram. I realize that I forgot the camera at the Cliff Lodge; pictures will wait for tomorrow.
Bushwacker proves an excellent guide who knows the mountain and how to push a kid to expand her limits. And Snowbird proves to be in fine spring skiing form. We start in Mineral Basin and follow the sun -- first skier's left, towards Baldy, then down to the base for a break, then up again and over to Little Cloud, as each area gets grabby. Beautiful cream cheese abounds everywhere. But Girlie-Girl is getting tired -- hardly surprising, given lack of both sleep and altitude acclimation -- so we decide that our last run will be down past the bottom of Little Cloud into the backcountry groomer, a wonderful oxymoron.
Unfortunately, the "last run" curse strikes. As Girlie-Girl tries to maintain speed past the bottom of Little Cloud, she catches an edge and goes down hard, gaining introduction to the injury we all know as skier's thumb. Despite the pain, we ski down, get changed, and meet Bushwacker for lunch.
After resting for the afternoon, we decide to go down to Sandy for Chinese food for dinner. She and I both have headaches, despite hydrating, which I chalk up to the altitude gain. As dinner arrives, she visibly takes a turn for the worse, looking positively exhausted. She can't eat. We get to-go boxes and headed for the car.
No sooner are we back in the room than she starts projectile vomiting. Fortunately, she gets herself into the bathroom before much gets anywhere. After five or six rounds -- who counts? -- she gargles a bit to get the taste out of her mouth and takes a bath.
While she's in the bath, I go online and verifu what I already know and fear: vomiting and headaches are both symptoms of altitude sickness, and once symptoms set in, the only real cure is descent. So I'm dreading having to pack up all our stuff, cut our pre-paid stay short, find a hotel downhill somewhere, and try get on an earlier plane home.
But as we're talking, I can hear her spirits lifting. She's gone a while without puking, which is a good sign in itself. So I suggest that we get some sleep, not set the alarm, and in the morning, we'll do whatever she decides she wants to do. (She responds that she doesn't think this means we can drive down to the 7-11 and spend $50 on candy, and I concur.)
Saturday, May 31, 2008, a.k.a. Girlie-Girl's last day as a ten-year-old.
Girlie-Girl wakes up at 7:15, says she's feeling better, and informs me that she wants to go skiing. Without me even asking what she wants to do. And with her skier's thumb swollen and black and blue. After another buffet breakfast at the Atrium, we head for the tram. En route, I realize that I forgot the camera at the Cliff Lodge. Again. I swear to remember it tomorrow.
We do a couple of warmup runs with Vince F of Epic after he approaches us on the tram (hard to miss the Bros and almost 11 year old girl on teles), then play off Bushwacker's sun-following methodology from Friday: start in Mineral, shift left to Baldy (after a too-early jaunt into Little Cloud), finish up on Little Cloud, then a last run skier's left down Mineral so we could take the chair up to avoid hiking and download on the tram.
We go back to the room, shower, and head down canyon to Midvale in search of flip-flops, books, and lunch, not necessarily in that order. At her request, we hit Subway, then head to Payless, and then as I'm telling the GPS to take us to Borders, she spies the Barnes & Noble logo. We head back up to the Cliff Lodge, put on swimsuits, grab books, and head down to the pool and hot tubs. A pleasant afternoon follows, then dinner at the Wildflower and early to bed. No one fakes sleep this time.
Oh -- and sometime before we headed down to Midvale, I put the camera in the Camelbak so I'll be sure to have it tomorrow.
Sunday, June 1, 2008, a.k.a. Girlie-Girl's 11th birthday.
We wake up still tired, I wish her a happy birthday, and we smile and giggle a bit. We gather some of our stuff together in preparation for packing, call for a late checkout, and head for the Forklift to be waited on for breakfast. Neither of us eat much, but it’s pretty darned good. I text Bushwacker to let him know where we are, and he calls me to arrange to meet up with us on Mineral Basin.
So up the tram we go – first tram this time – and over to Mineral Basin, skier's right.
But this time… I have the camera.
Here’s Girlie-Girl, skier's right of Mineral Basin:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1212469672
And here she is again, further right:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1212469672 http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1212469672
Then Bushwacker joined us, and we headed left towards Baldy. The snow is only mediocre, but Bushwacker manages to capture a couple of shots of me:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1212469673
… and even of both of us together:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1212469672
But we're getting tired, so we bid adieu to Bushwacker and head towards Little Cloud for a few last runs. It’s still pretty nice there:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1212469673 http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1212469673 http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1212469673
The last run down, we miss the turn towards Little Cloud, and decide to ski down for the last run of the year. Which we do. And it was good.
Then it was back to the room, where we packed, checked out, hit the gift shop for stickers for her brothers and Sinecure’s kids, head into town, grab lunch, catch Prince Caspian, and head to SLC.
Then, it was back to the real world.
But strong thanks go to those without whom this trip would not have been the same: sfotex, Bushwacker, and last, but certainly not least, the birthday girl.
