Park City
Sunday 9 February 1997

Weather

A bitterly cold night with temperatures of -12 Fahrenheit became a perfect day for skiing, with clear blue skies and strong sunlight.

Conditions

Not perfect by any means. The main runs were well skied and grooming had converted a crust into ice balls. The weekend encouraged a large number of skiers and this meant a lot of grooming. There was little variety of terrain. All of the intermediate runs were groomed; virtually all of the advanced runs were mogulled.

Overall

The first day of the 1997 family ski holiday, a rather depleted family, with the girls still at college and John away in Quebec with school.

After a long day travelling we were up bright and early. The night was cloudless and the temperature when we left the condo was about -12 degrees Fahrenheit. We were wandering around a deserted Resort Center at 7am in the cold waiting for Ziggys to open for breakfast.

It took us a long time to get going. The ski rental shop was a complete zoo with two large parties trying to get their equipment and two hours in the cold left our boots pretty difficult to get on.

The skis Chris and I rented, Rossignol 9.9 Side Cut at 184cm proved to be the perfect choice for the conditions.

By the time we got started, the sun was in the sky and there a really beautiful day in prospect and it was clear that we were not going to get cold.

Sue and Chris unloading from First Time lift	Sue at the top of First Time
The porcupine	The porcupine with the race hill in the background

We stayed together for the first four runs, two from First Time and two from Three Kings. The lift queues were very slow moving; it seemed that there were wern't enough staff to keep the chairs filled. Snow conditions at resort level were not good. There had obviously been overnight freezing and the grooming machines has broken the top surface into lumps. The runs of Three Kings were better but clearly heavily skied since the last snow.

After a coffee break, Chris and I set off up the mountain. A quick run down Payday and Ski Team took us to the top of the ridge. We cut through the trees to Assessment to get our first experience of the new 6 seater chair. There was a huge crowd and even in the singles line we had to wait about 15 minutes. Prospector had quite slick patches on the steeper section as did Combustion. After one run down the length of King Con it was time to head down to the base for lunch, via Gotcha Cut-Off.

Sue was clearly intent on making progress this year and after lunhc joined us as we headed back towards the Summit. Three Kings and Ski Team took us to Claim Jumper and the Snow Hut restaurant. Chris and I took one fast run down Powder Keg as Sue got the coffees in.

By this time, we were all getting very tired and decided enough was enough. Sue took the Gondola to the base while Chris and I skied down.

All in all a good first day, no pressure and no trouble at all getting to sleep!

Vertical: Sue:3249 Chris:12712

Vertical (feet)

12712

Runs

Lift	Vertical	Easy Runs	Intermediate Runs	Advanced Runs
First Time	270	Treasure Hollow
First Time	270	First Time
Three Kings	465	Pick 'n Shovel
Three Kings	465	Silver Hollow
Break
PayDay	1286		PayDay
Ski Team	1600	Half Load, Claim Jumper	Assessment
Silverlode	1305		Broadway	Prospector, Combustion
King Consolidated	1200		King Con Ridge	Seldom Seen
King Consolidated	1200		King Con Ridge, Gotcha Cut-Off, Ladies SL
Lunch
Three Kings	465	First Time
Ski Team	1600	Half Load, Claim Jumper
Silverlode	1305		Powder Keg, Hidden Splendor
Break
Silverlode	1305	Claim Jumper	Treasure Hollow	Silver Queen
Total vertical	12736