Jason and I woke up in SLC and headed straight to the bus depot. Frantically hunting for his goggles, we just barely made the bus and were the last ones to board. Unlike the ski bus (Bustang) in Colorado, which costs $25 and runs once (or is it twice?) a day, the Utah transit authority runs a ski bus every 30 minutes and it costs $5. Even better- we found out that the bus was included with our ski pass which made us dance a jig for joy.
We headed to Brighton ski resort, where we met up with my friends from Carbon Fiona and Cat and I met Fiona’s partner Shelby. Forming a team of four, we attacked the incredibly decent snow, locating powder stashes in trees and having a grand reunion.
In the photo above, Park City is at our backs. A nice old-timer explained to us that Park City “has restaurants and bars but not as good snow as the resorts in the canyon due to the narrow walls that trap storms.” Cool!
It was really nice to catch up with Fiona and Cat! Hard to believe that it's been around 4 years since I've seen Cat, and maybe 2 since I've seen Fiona. They both seemed happy and overall their lives seemed to be faring at least 15/20, which is great. Also both of them are much better skiiers than me, but I was glowing inside because last time I skied with them was at the beginning of my PhD and I think we did one run together before they left me for Advanced Terrain and this time I got to spend the whole day with them. Progress!
Jason and I are candidates for a Tasty Bite sponsorship, so of course we ate one while waiting in line for the bus. The bus came, but the line before us was so long we had to wait for the next bus. Alas. Bus life.
Dinner was at Fiona's house, where we relished eating home cooked food and swapping stories. It feels like the official end of Stage 1 of our trip- we have left the towering sandstone of Red Rock canyon, and swapped it for the quartzite of Big Cottonwood canyon in Salt Lake City. Not that we can see the rock anyway- it's buried under snow. We've swapped tshirts for ski bibs as well. A new stage, one we are happy to embark on.