Oops.

Yesterday Luke wanted to go to Snowbird so bad he was willing to pay for it himself. So I let him. I had a free ski ticket to Snowbird that I had planned to use to ski by myself but I was happy to go with Luke. He woke up so excited. It was great!


We studied the trail maps and planned our day. I wanted to make sure I stuck to the easier trails for him. We spent the morning on the lower runs then chose to go up the Peruvian Express to the tunnel. If you look at the map below it's the red line on the left. The idea was to go through the tunnel and ski the green runs on the other side. Then we would take another chairlift up to the tram and take that down. Easy.




Well there were no signs warning us the tunnel had just been closed. We didn't find out until we were on the top. The wind was fierce when we got there and our only way down was an intermediate run. Here is a picture of Luke in front of what would be a big cliff in the summer. In the winter, it's your way down.



I looked at the hill and thought it would be tough but we could do it. I was right. Luke did it. He had to go slow and was pretty cold (and a bit nervous) but he did great. I taught him how to make quick turns on the steep hill and he thankfully he trusted me and learned super quick. It was such a relief to get down and a great feeling to look up at where we had been. We had a few minutes of easy going skiing before we hit the next challenge. Our biggest challenge. The run was as close to black as you can get. It was a groomed run but there was a lot of loose powder that day and lots of bumps because we were skiing over the trees. I'm sure it would have been a black diamond at another resort. I was a bit freaked out at the thought of taking Luke down, but figured if we went slow we could make it. It was just too tough though. Finally after skiing over him once I decided to take off our skis and slide down because Luke was so cold. Fortunately for us this super nice guy (Gunner) stopped and said he would help us down. He carried Luke's skis and followed us to make sure we would be ok. Sliding down on our bums was pretty scary because it was so steep but Luke was able to stay in control. I was pretty amazed. By this time I was so nervous of what was to come. I've skied that way before on my own but it's such a different perspective when you have your precious little boy with you. Here is another picture just before the place we got in trouble.




After a while Gunner took off and we would have been fine but I was so happy to see him at the top of the last steep hill. Gunner told Luke to follow him down the hill and he did GREAT! He stumbled a bit but he did it. This is a picture of Gunner helping Luke one time when he stumbled. The picture makes the hill look flat but it isn't!



Luke feels pretty good about himself now. I'm still a bit shaken. You know, I hear over and over how much people love Snowbird. I think I finally figured out why. The trails are much more challenging at Snowbird and less groomed (more powder). While I will definitely go to Snowbird over and over again, I am even more grateful for Alta's free Sunnyside lift. It's absolutely perfect for beginning skiers. The lift takes you high enough that you feel like you get to see a lot. It's well groomed and has plenty of paths down giving you plenty of skill options. It's a really fun ride down for me when I'm alone too. I think my heart will always be at the Canyons though. I love it there. It's a huge resort and I know the paths there the best because I have skied it the most.

Here are a few more pictures of Snowbird. I've got a couple videos I want to post later too.