I LOVE ALTA!!!! Tele skiing in Utah over Christmas was awesome. There wasn't a whole lot of new snow, but there was plenty of fun to be had at Alta. Bryan and I found some great spots off trail and even made a few fresh turns in the fluffy pow. The best part was that I got Bryan on tele skis for 2 whole days. The first day was a result of him taking a core sample out of the bottom of his alpine ski on the 2nd run of the day courtesy of a hidden rock. He opted to rent tele gear while his ski was being repaired. Day 2 Phil joined us and I had a lot of laughs watching Phil and Bryan waffle around on tele gear. I think they ultimately deserved this since they drug me through a ton of gated black diamond areas the day before. Phil's famous words were "Come on, it will be great.", only to find moguls the size of VW Beatles. We did find a lot of good snow even though I had to do some survival tele skiing in the huge moguls to get to it. It was anything but graceful. Here are some pics from our trip and a couple of videos of Bryan and I skiing. Bryan makes me jealous, this is only is 4th time on tele and he is linking turns and looking like a pro. He still has some good wrecks though, unfortunately, I didn't get any of them on film.
Awesome sunrise en route to Alta
Bryan tele skiing:
The infamous Utah inversion layer
By the time we left Utah I had tele'd 4 days and went cross country skiing one day, with no rest in between. My legs were shot. I could barely walk by our last day skiing. One byproduct of my 5 consecutive days of skiing was one very swollen right knee. I guess the fact that I have a torn LCL and partial ACL tear really makes it difficult to recover from skiing.
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As you can see, my right knee is puffy compared to my left. This picture doesn't do it justice. Also, you will notice a nice yellow/purple bruise above my left knee. This is from my first stint on cross country skis. Bryan and I both had one really great crash on or XC skis. Mental note, if there is any chance you might want to slow down on a downhill, do it before you get going too fast. Obviously, I had some issues. This picture also does not do my contusion justice, it is very bright and colorful and now it is more purple than yellow. I am pretty sure I broke a blood vessel.
Me dropping a knee
Catherine's Area-My personal favorite
