TR Utah visit

I'm having lots of fun in my visit to Salt Lake City -- excellent snow cover
and warm weather make a nice change from the Northeast U.S. What I've been
doing so far:
-- Mill Creek Canyon + Mountain Dell
-- cross-country and video at Alta
-- backcountry tours in powder snow

I arrived on Monday afternoon and headed straight for Mountain Dell -- no
single killer climb, but plenty enough hills on this one-time World Cup
course to put my flatlander lungs into searing. Track firm by Utah
standards, but when I strayed too far from the center, or I poked my pole
way down into the snow several times. A fun place, despite being a golf
course right next to Interstate 80.

Tuesday afternoon: So much snow this year, I was able to start a steep-ish
backcountry directly from a normal city street with residential houses.
More searing while climbing up on skins, and after half an hour I was
half-lost. But then I figured out where I was, and enjoyed some nice turns
coming back down in "decent powder" (Northeast terminology) or "old
consolidated snow" (Utah terminology).

Wednesday: Three hours of skating at Mountain Dell -- with no searing in my
lungs any more. Finally learning to skate slow. Tried Vordenberg's Hot
Feet drill -- I find I'm liking the Nathan Schultz "slow tempo but immediate
leg-push" variation.

Thursday: Heard the reports from Chris and others about XC skiing at Alta,
so Sharon and I drive up there. Along the way Dave calls my cell phone and
invites me to join him and other partners on a "super" big backcountry tour
on the weekend to take advantage of the unusual snow conditions.

Alta cross-country: Wow these Utah skiers are animals! The Alta trail map
says that the Albion area has green novice trails, but they'd be
super-expert anywhere else. After a hundred meters of climbing I just gave
up. I asked someone wearing an Alta jacket what I should do, and he said I
should get up the hill by riding on the lifts -- so that's what I did.
Going down, I saw the signs for "Easier Way" and followed them. At first I
was tentative on my Madshus Hypersonic 3x3 skate skis and Pilot boots, but
then I passed a couple of people with yellow Pilot boots, and I felt more in
control when I got back to the bottom.

So then I decided to try the "blue" trails, so I rode up the Supreme lift,
and made lots of stem christie turns all the way down. My next exploration
was the Sugarloaf lift, and I decided the "black" trail was worth a try, so
I made a bunch of stem christie turns down the "Sugarloaf Bowl" trail. I
was kind of amazed that the plastic(?) edges on my race skate skis worked on
that hardpack snow up so close to the windy ridge. (I had been wondering
how those Sierra adventurers could do those big backcountry traverses
without metal edges, and now I have a clue.)

Videos: Sharon took some more videos of my V1 technique at Alta -- I've
fixed a couple of things, but still too much up-and-down motion, and not
enough push out to the side.

Friday morning: Backcountry tour with Eric. Like Chris suggested, the
north-facing shady areas still had some fun powder snow. We had a wild time
dodging trees and going air-borne off soft snow pillows.

Mill Creek Canyon on Friday afternoon: Excellent grooming of a wide
snow-covered road that goes up, and up, and up. Great place to fix those V1
mistakes uncovered by Sharon's videos of me at Alta. More on the Hot Feet
drill. I'm passing classic striders and walkers, no other skaters. Feels
better than I've ever skated before. But I have to stop after 13 minutes,
and again after another 5 minutes, and again and again. It feels so
powerful that I can't make myself do it slowly. Made it to the top, start
skiing back down, and . . .

Lots of skaters climbing up -- really good skiers. So every time I reach
one, I stop my descent and turn around and follow them up a ways, to see
what I can learn.

Best politically-incorrect exercise: A woman skating up with her poles held
horizontally across her waist, turning from side to side with each leg-push,
and seeing her poles turn with her. So I tried it, but not for long. What
a mind-blowing idea, skating up Mill Creek Canyon with no poles -- and
smiling. (Do not get into a race against her)

A few minutes later I come to a guy with a full beard climbing with a quick
V2. In my dreams. I did not try to copy him. When I finally got to the
bottom of the snow and my car, my face muscles felt nearly frozen. So
that's what all those skaters had in those little backpacks: extra clothing
for the descent.

Ken