The Jessi James Gang: Solitude

Showing posts with label Solitude. Show all posts

Adventures of James and Lincoln - March 18, 2012

I had to work today, which means the boys were on their own. Lincoln was having a hard time falling asleep, so James and Lincoln drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon for nap time. It was snowing and beautiful and Lincoln was sleeping so nicely. James stopped in at Solitude to look for their avalanche beacon practice area. As he took his second loop around the back parking lot, he took the corner too wide and The Outlaw ended up stuck. Very, very stuck. Tilting crazily in the ditch at the end of the parking lot. The snow cats were out and busy. Too busy to stop or to help. But there is always a sheriff in the canyon, so maybe they wouldn't be stuck for too long?

By this time, I was on my way home. I stopped at the apartment for the diaper bag, my coat and better shoes, and drove up the canyon to feed my baby. The sheriff arrived. He called for another sheriff with a vehicle with a winch. That sheriff arrived. The controls for the winch were missing. That sheriff left. They called for a tow truck. That tow truck, a flat-bed, arrived and didn't even try to get to the XTerra. That tow truck left. They called for a tow truck with a winch.

Lincoln was having a great time. He got to play with my work ID badge and we visited our friends who live nearby. Thank you for a bathroom and a warm place to wait and a cat or two to distract our sleepy baby. Plus it was fun to show off our six-month old!

Finally, the right tow truck with the right tools arrived. It was fairly simple to pull The Outlaw out of the ditch and all the way across the lower parking lot and up the hill to the main parking lot. James could have driven, once the XTerra was out of the ditch, but the tow truck had all that cable played out. So they used the XTerra as a 'weight' to spin their cable back into the spool tightly.

A simple drive up the canyon ended up being a long, expensive adventure (Reminds me a bit of Gilligan's Island... A three-hour tour!). Poor James didn't even get any dinner (I was in such a rush to come 'rescue' the baby, that I didn't bring any food for my man. Sorry!). No harm to The Outlaw, James or Lincoln so it was a good adventure after all.

Winter - October 26, 2011

Here is proof that Mountain bike season is over. They are blowing snow! This is at Solitude. We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon before school today to pick up James' pass at Brighton.

Now we just need to do a little snow dance!

Last ski day at Solitude - April 09, 2011

The last ski day of the season is always a little sad. There is a TON of snow in Utah and Snowbird will be open for another couple of months - but that would cost more money. Today we used our last tickets at Solitude and enjoyed skiing in another snow storm!

This is me at 18 weeks pregnant - the Dr. said I could ski up until about 20 weeks, so I guess I'll have to put the skis away for the season after all!

Bachelor Party - December 11, 2010

Brian is getting MARRIED! So James & Brian had a bachelor party at Solitude.

First, teach Brian to wax his snowboard - just love the lamp boxes propped up by the ironing board. Great set-up!

Scrape off the wax on the front porch.

Took this photo just for the outfits. Stylin!

Spend the day in the mountains - fresh snow!

Hike a little. It's not a party unless you can say your life (or your snowboard) was in danger of falling down an entire mountain!

My James!

Good Luck Brian!

SKIING! Solitude - November 20, 2010

If you're crazy with jealousy that the Jessi James Gang and Kathleen got to go skiing before Thanksgiving, please read only the blue lines. That way, we'll still be friends. If you love us forever - even though you're crazy with jealousy - and want to know the real story, read the red lines.

You really wouldn't want to have been skiing with us. The wind was blowing like crazy. The ridges protected us from the wind and then it wasn't so bad.

Only the bottom part of the resort was open, which means that lift tickets weren't full price yet.

The limited terrain meant that all the runs got skied out pretty quickly, but it was still fluffy and fantastic and there were always lines along the trees.

Coverage is still very thin and early season, so we often had to ski through bushes to get to runs that were less tracked out and then the powder was almost knee deep.

Because it snowed overnight and most of the morning, there were no groomed runs - so we skied powder all day.

The only break in the storm was about noon, when we saw a tiny bit of blue sky.

But after lunch it really started to blow and instead of snowflakes, it was like little hail pellets that really sting your nose - and really filled in the morning's tracks. Kind of like skiing on the little styrofoam balls from inside a bean bag.

Because of the storm, the temperature dropped and it got cold! And sent most of the skiers home early - it was like having our own resort after lunch.

Visibility was terrible away from the trees; it was often difficult to see the terrain changes because of the flat light. So we skied the edges near the trees and the snow was fluffy and forgiving and fun.

While riding the lift, we had to block our faces with our hands to protect from snow pellets and we got completely covered. By the end of the day, all the runs skied like freshies!

At the end of the day we were tired from skiing powder all day. And we had to scrape off six inches! of snow from the windshield and windows.

Solitude - November 20, 2010

Kathleen

James

Jessi

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hooray for Fall! October 10, 2010

We've been doing some exploring...

Saturday, September 25, 2010 - Oktoberfest - Snowbird, Little Cottonwood Canyon. This was a beautiful day. So warm and sunny!

I didn't get a picture of the moose (plural) we saw. There was a bull moose and a momma with her two babies in a pond near the parking lot. There were mountain security people shooing all the people away from the moose and into the parking lot traffic. As we were walking along the parked cars, the momma and her babies splashed out of the pond and headed into the parking lot in our general direction. We turned and walked between parked cars and before I could make up my mind to climb underneath the closest SUV, they headed away again. James told me he would have protected me with his body, attempting to redirect her by shoulder-to-shoulder contact - can you imagine James v. Momma Moose!? Glad it didn't come to that!

Besides a nice drive up the canyon with my sweetheart, we explored the Oktoberfest shopping (Kuhl had an outlet tent with some fantastic deals - James got 2 pr pants for his winter wardrobe. Hoping they'll have another sale before summer - would love a pair of their capris for me!). We stopped in the food tent, briefly, to listen to the Polkatronics... But the prices were too high for any sampling - $5.75 for a piece of German Chocolate cake! $9.50 for a bratwurst!

And we finished our drive by wandering up to Alta to check on the last of the snow.

Sunday, October 3, 2010 - Big Cottonwood Canyon. During the Sunday morning session of General Conference we decided to drive up our favorite canyon to check on the progress of the fall colors. Beautiful!

A really lovely background to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the messages from the Lord.

Friday, October 8, 2010 - Big Cottonwood Canyon. As James and I contemplated his school schedule, we both felt strongly about the need for recreational study breaks. So while we scrounged up tuition money, we also scrounged up money for a 10-pack at Solitude Ski Resort. They usually put all 10 passes onto one card, but for $25 more you can have two cards with 5 passes on each. With school and flying and everything else, I would have been surprised if James could have found 10 ski days this winter. Between the two of us, no problem! We drove up the canyon to check on the fall colors and to pick up our ski passes. This is Solitude's village and a children's fishing pond near the Disc Golf course.

It was the first really cool weather that included rain in the valley. So we weren't surprised to find SNOW at the higher levels. This old cabin is in the Brighton "circle"

We stopped on our drive down the canyon to check out Hidden Falls. This is one of the locations where I took Kurt & Carlee's engagement photos - ages & ages & three kids ago.

We also stopped there last spring with my cousin Michael (March 21, 2009) after a good ski day. As we explored, the guys found a GEOCACHE and wrote their names in the log book. Guess what? The cache and the log book with their entry was still there.

Saturday, October 9, 2010 - took a break from exploring to do homework. Love it! Hand-me-down floral couch from a family James helped move. Cooler/coffee table with hospital pillow for cushioning. Soccer jersey from Kathleen's trip to Ireland, camo-pajama pants from Christmas in Idaho (thanks Mom!), and hospital non-slip socks. (He's probably doing homework in this picture (with such a serious expression) - but maybe he was updating his fantasy football team or watching You-Tube videos of small airplanes landing on non-existant landing strips in Alaska.)

Sunday, October 10, 2010 - Mirror Lake Scenic Byway (Uinta Mountains) We took a study break and wandered our way along this pretty drive. Enough snow for snowballs on top of these mountains. We made a long loop of it and drove past Snow Basin (no snow there) and stopped to visit GandG Price for a half-hour-or-so.

Happy Adventuring!

Hanging out with Prices - April 7, 2010

Jordan is home from his Chicago Mission! WELCOME HOME!!!

The Price's came to Utah to meet him at the airport, attend General Conference and SKI! and SKI! and SKI! James & Michael night skiied on April 1st in a blizzard. Then we met up at Aunt Lynnette's on Easter Sunday for a really yummy dinner, lots of visiting and some 4-wheeler and dirtbike fun.

Today, James took a day off of work so he could ski at Brighton with the Prices - and the snow was wonderful. Couple feet of new that was light and fluffy in the morning and a little bit heavy by afternoon. Nobody got hurt, nobody got lost, SOMEBODY tried to do a front-flip and everybody had a good time!

They stayed at a condo up at Solitude - complete with an outdoor pool and hot tubs - which were very fun, but can't have been as hot as usual with all the snowballs being put into the water!

We had dinner - THANK YOU! - and played Ticket To Ride. I was so clever and so certain that I was going to complete six routes and win by a landslide. The very last turn, Uncle Doug put his train where I needed to go and then Aunt Suzie put her train to completely block that spot, and without even trying they blocked 5 of my 6 routes and my trains crashed and burned! It was so fun. Thanks for the invite!

Avalanche Course / Solitude Chocolate Day - January 23, 2010

James and Anchorage Dan took an avalanche course this week. They had their classroom day on Wednesday evening. Then their outdoor course at The Canyons today. They got super cheap lift tickets because they would ride the lift, maybe twice. The rest of the day they spent digging holes in the snow to look at the different types of layers and identifying hazards of terrain and slope angle and the snow pack.

After their day of poking around in the snow, they stopped by an event at Park City. Watched some very, very impressive snowboarding - including the Flying Tomato (Sean White) and Louis Vito (my favorite because of his adventures on Dancing with the Stars).

While the guys were shoveling and practicing beacon drills, I had a half day of skiing at Solitude with my friend Diana. She used to patrol at Snow Basin and Powder Mountain, so our skiing is very compatible. Even though she's never been and I've only skied at Solitude a couple times, we found plenty of fresh snow and even some untracked turns!

And as a surprise bonus, it was Chocolate Day! We got a piece of yummy Cummings mint chocolate at the base area and a "passport" with six spots for "validations" We didn't try to go to all the different chocolate spots, but we did get the chocolate milk and made a special effort to get a chocolate covered strawberry. YUMMY!