I'm an Idiot





Today was supposed to be the perfect day. I had the day off and we've had several storms make an appearance in the last week. It turns out the biggest storm came in last night and this morning. I woke up to see everything covered in half a foot of snow, with more coming down hard. The original plan was to drive out to Snowbird, another resort about 40 minutes away. But looking out the window, I started wondering if I should just stay in Park City. First of all, the mountain was report 12 inches of new snow at the peak! Secondly, Park City was essentially snowed in, so the resort would be more or less empty. And finally, being snowed in meant it would be an interesting trip out of Park City as well.

In the end I went against my better judgment and, with a couple of coworkers, drove out into the blizzard. Driving 20 miles per hour on the freeway with visibility of about 40 feet I again realized that I probably should have just stayed home. But the adventure was underway, it was too late to turn back (in my mind at least).

So we continued on. In the end, a 40 minute drive took over two hours. Even better, as we approached our exit, we were greeted by a friendly police officer informing us that road up Snowbird was closed for the foreseeable future. Fan-tast-ic! So it's now 11:00am on the best snow day of the year and we're looking at another two hour drive back to the mountains.

But wait! We quickly discover not only is the road to Snowbird closed, but the road back to Park City has since been shut down too! It's now 11:30am, there is snow everywhere, and we're stuck in Salt Lake City. So what do you do when you're stuck in Salt Lake City? There's really only one thing to do, hang out at Mormon HQ, Temple Square (in the snow!).

We didn't get back to Park City until 3:00pm; completely missing the best snow day of the year. :(

Forehead Cleavage

One of the great things about Park City is hanging out with people from all over the world. Who knew that Utah would end up being one of the most diverse places I've visited? And one thing I love about hanging out with foreigners is picking up foreign vocabulary.

The phrase of the year (so far) has to be forehead cleavage. Forehead cleavage refers to an unnecessarily large gap between the top of snowboarder's goggles and his helmet (or tuque). Good snowboarding style dictates that the goggles and the helmet should form a nice seal along the forehead. And it's not just an issues of aesthetics, either. Forehead cleavage leaves the forehead exposed, which can lead to a brain freeze if you spend a couple hours outside.

But forehead cleavage does happen. Whether it's the result of bad equipment (say a pair of hand-me-down goggles that are way too small) or just plain ignorance it's always worth a laugh. Sadly I don't have any pictures yet, but it's become one of my goals this year.

Hanging with the Kids





Teaching kids can be hard. I've already mentioned that a day with five kids is one-part instruction, one-part daycare (with a strong emphasis on daycare — obviously kids aren't going to do much if they're not happy). And rumor has it that kids here in America are even more out of control than your average youngster. As one of my Japanese friends puts it, "American children are completely out of control!" A lot of foreign instructors choose to teach adults over kids simply because they can't stand trying maintain control of American children.

I've certainly had plenty of interesting days with kids, but in general I seem to relate to them pretty well. I recently realized that my strong connection is probably due to the fact that I still have mental capacity of juvenile. Today, for example, I got into an in depth discussion with two ten-year-olds about the best candy in the world. And I felt validated that everyone agreed the Nerd Rope (see picture above) is indeed a very underrated creation.

Of course, having the mindset of a ten-year-old isn't always a good thing. At the end of the day one of the kids in my class saw a big hill near the kids' corral (where we drop everyone off at the end of the day) and said, "Hey can we slide down that on our butts?!" Looking at it I thought, "Wow that looks awesome!" and all three of us slid down it. Of course, after dropping the kids off my boss walked by and casually informed me that maybe we shouldn't be sliding all over the mountain on our butts. Apparently it doesn't present a professional image for the ski school.

That's a Wrap

Well things are finally calming down a little here. Sundance ended last week and the town is slowly recovering: pulling down posters, removing temporary theaters, and (sadly) returning buses to their slow, inconsistent schedule. Ah well, it's nice to be able to go out at night again. Life on the mountain is starting to pick up again, I worked every day last week (not a full day of work, but work none the less). A few other random bits that have been going on:

• The 2007 Deaflympics started this weekend at Park City Mountain Resort. It makes sitting on the chair lifts a little more enjoyable; you get to watch slalom races, half-pipe competitions, etc as you ride back up the mountain. But the entire event is (predictably, I suppose) extremely quiet. As a skier races down the mountain you'll see a crowd of 50 fans throwing their hands in the air, waving flags and jumping all over the place. But they don't make a sound. It's kind of cool to watch, actually; they're much more animated when they cheer. Also, ski and snowboarding terms in sign language are very self explanatory, it's cool to see two deaf snowboarders talk about a ride they just took through the half-pipe.


• Our cold snap has officially ended; we're now suffering though the warmest weather of the season. 45 degree weather and a low snow base don't go well together. It feels like spring skiing, except it's the beginning of February. I'm starting to get worried that they'll have to end the season early this year.


• I've had a couple of friends in from Seattle for the last couple of weeks. It's been great to have some company around here, but three guys sharing a hotel room make for some cramped living conditions. After much debate, I ended up sharing my bed with Mike (with a solid blanket and pillow divider between us, of course). Unfortunately, I also discovered that Mike is a pretty strong snorer. Many nights turned into a struggle of wills between his snores and my ability to shut him up with well placed pillows. I woke up one morning and saw the results of a long night. Sadly he was still asleep and still snoring. I'm not sure how he pulled it off.