Today is the dreaded April 17th..... Closing day for Park City Mountain Resort and Canyons. I managed to withhold the tear that I wanted to shed in mourning of the lifts closing and the end of winter.
There really is nothing I love in my life more than snowboarding. I absolutely love summer, but now that the Sweet Unit is missing its motor, it will be a loooooong summer for Mischa and I. I will have to say that I am very much looking forward to hiking in Park City this summer with her, but it will be a while because there is still a lot of snow and it will take a while to melt and for mud season to pass.
Not to fear, however...Brighton is still open until Sunday the 24th and the Dirty Bird is hoping to be open until.....drumroll..... THE 4TH OF JULY!! They currently have an incredible base depth of 180 inches with more snow to come.
With that said, this was the first year that I had passes in Park City and it was so exciting to explore two new mountains!! My park riding has improved after being able to ride the great parks that both resorts have and my switch riding improved dramatically after riding the super groomers at Park City. My back country awareness and steep and deep powder riding improved after hiking the ridge at Canyons and my tree riding improved after ducking and dodging the tight trees at both places... (although one could say that I still have not completely mastered the tree riding concept because I have a bruise the size of a small animal on my left hip after flying like a bat out of hell and nailing a tree last week...).
I couldn't have asked for a better day today....The entire Salt Lake valley was covered in clouds and it was raining. It was raining in Parleys and it was raining in Heber. I was only wearing a t-shirt and it was sunny and beautiful in Park City! Other than busting out a few scorpions and crashing after a few attempts at a 360 I was happy with my riding and enjoyed watching everyone else in the park.
I am hoping to get about another 2 months in, at least, but this is the beginning of the end. I just have to remind myself that with all the free time I will have from not riding everyday, I can look for a new job and actually become fluent in Arabic!
So, good bye Canis Lupis, Dutchman's, Big Mac, Dream Catcher, Gondola, Eaglet, King Con, Georgeanna, Super Pipe, my "favorite spot" and Monitor bowl. I'll be counting the days for the chairs to start running again! - Hey Canyons....Early November this year, huh!
