New Year’s morning, 6AM – off to JFK.

1PM touchdown in SLC.

It’s COLD. 5 degrees in SLC. Negative nine in Park City.

By 5 we’re checked in, groceries bought, and planning out the next day.

Snowmobiling offers heat vents, heated handlebars, and a Yurt with hot Cocoa!

Day 1 – Monday we snowmobile mid day. It’s a lot like Jet Skiing but on snow instead. The same mushy turning and fast slowing down. Hills and deep powder are both a lot of fun.

The walk down to main street from the room is not bad at all despite still sub-zero temperatures, literally! Dinner at The Butcher’s Chop House. Very good cowboy steak (bone-in rib-eye), nice bison steak. Wine list a little weak. Side dishes done very nicely.

Day 2 – I Ski. Lethy hangs out. Still cold, temps in single digits at the base. I spread my time across the whole mountain. Some of the back mountain lifts are numbingly cold! Dinner in.

Day 3 – More skiing! Temps are better, in the teens at the base, around 0 at the summit. No need for heatpacks. Focus mostly on the Silverlode area. Detonator totally rules! Found a great run of a glades beginning, a 2 sections of moguls, followed by a big steep, leading into Detonator which dumps me onto a “bomb it” flat to the lift.

Day 4 – Work / rest. Blah blah. Amazing dinner at Prime Steak House. Kobe NY Strip double thick and a pair of fresh Australian Lobster tails. Some of the best steak I’ve ever had. Sides were so-so. Fairly extensive wine list. After dinner we do a wine tasting while listening to live piano/guitar.

Day 5 – Ski! A half inch of fresh powder makes for a nice change of pace. Skiing solo is a little strange. Sometimes its lonely, but other times it has huge advantages. Singles lines means no wait at the lift. No waiting for bio breaks… averaging 25 runs a day! Doing the constant short mogul runs has really forced my technique to improve. The day off was a must though, with improved technique came improved leg cramps at night. Dinner in.

Day 6 – Ski some more! “Heat wave” making conditions a little more interesting. Wearing literally 2 fewer layers all around than on Day 2. Still barely cracks 32F but the sun makes it feel 50F. Last day on the slopes. Dinner at Easy Street Brasserie. Good food, but overpriced.

Day 7 – Checkout at 10AM. Starting to snow pretty hard so despite the desire to stick around and maybe go tubing, we beat feet for the valley. We decide to head out to the Bonneville Salt Flats – which are quite a drive. Albeit a very flat, straight one. (Duh!)

Apparently the flats are actually flooded with 1 to 2 inches of water and slush from November to early summer. It then evaporates and they smooth out 3 race tracks in August and race through October. $400 for as many times as you can make it down the track in a week!

After the salt flats we swung paste Temple Square in SLC. We went into the visitor center where we were continually approached by “tour guides” who were really just recruiters. They had that “wild-eyed, enthusiastic, I’m totally in a cult” stare to them. It really creeps me out so we got out of there as quickly as we could without being totally rude.

Redeye flight home was again completely packed, but at least we got to sit together!

Looking forward to more slope time in Jackson this March!