Yesterday I headed up with a friend and my mom to Wolf Mountain in Eden, Utah to test out the beginner ground there. It had snowed 9" of East Coast snow, lending to pure cement by afternoon. It was beautiful anyway. It had been feeling a lot like Spring weather the past couple of days and I was wondering where our December weather was. As Rich (my friend from Florida) and I were skiing down one of our last runs of the day, I suddenly saw a flash of light and a second later heard that rumbling that generally follows a lightning bolt. Both of us being from Florida, we know that lightning is nothing to mess around with. Rich started racing down a black run (still learning how to get out of his snowplow) and I kinda stood in a stand-still stance in amazement. The storm had snuck up on everyone on the mountain and was now coming down on us in full force. Lightning struck again, this time, much closer and lit up the darkening sky. People on the lifts screamed and a second later we were being pelted with giant pea size pellets of hard snow (groppel). Never have I seen such a thing in Utah in December, and only once during the ski season at all, eight years earlier. I came to a realization with the screams that I'd better head down after Rich as well and get the heck outta Dodge. The pellets stung as they hit my face going mach-5 down the hill, but I just laughed incredulously. I have never experienced such a change in weather. It was such a powerful storm. The pellets filled every crevice in my car as we tried to rip our ski boots off. Within a matter of minutes, there was over two inches of pellets on the ground, and my windshield wipers could not keep up with it.
As we left we realized that we would need chains to get down the Ogden canyon. Having never put chains on my car before, I didn't realize that it would be such a process. I recruited a guy with a big truck for help. I think trucks and cowboy boots automatically qualify you as an expert in these areas. An hour later, with frozen hands and soaking boots, he had the darn things on and would accept none of our offers for compensation. Good ol' Utah people. We wished him a Merry Christmas and after filling the tires back up- they had to be almost entirely deflated- were on our way at 30 mph.
But we didn't get far. Just past the mouth of the Ogden canyon we saw flashing blue and red lights, followed by a short line of cars. Fourth in line, we were just far enough to not be able to see anything that was happening, but close enough to know we were lucky not to have been involved. We heard from curious people walking by that four cars had slid across the road, creating mass hysteria. No, ok, not that bad, but they were unable to get out of the predicament they were in and so we were told to wait for the snowplow that was on it's way, any minute now... 30 minutes now... 120 minutes now... Who knows how long it was after that. All I know is we started making up conversations for the people we could see who were going up to the police and talking to them, and making dumb noises whenever a car tried to turn around to go another way and ended up sliding off the road as well.
Driving back to SLC was pretty uneventful and once we got here the snow was just big fat flakes. Pure winter beauty. We headed into Federal Heights (an area right neighboring my neighborhood with historic homes) and did a Christmas light tour. It was really cozy looking there, perfectly Christmas in everyway. We decided to order a 26" pizza and play games in our little apartment afterwards, so the evening turned out pretty well (we had been planning on heading up to Park City and then to a tubing hill, but we figured we had enough of the elements for one day).
Today we woke up to a completely white world. The trees were heavily laden with snow and the streets were dangerously covered. But it was beatiful! I only wish today had been a ski day for me... over 2 feet of snow in 24 hours makes for some incredibly Utah skiing. Even if I had been able to go, however, the line from the ski resorts stretched for over 2 miles from the mouth of the canyon (so another 10-15 miles up the canyon from there in bumper-to-bumper traffic). Utahns know when to call in sick ;).
Excitement Overload
OH... I am just so excited, I had to update again. Yes, it's crazy, but it's so beautiful! While I was looking through my pictures on my real camera, I found a couple more I never posted from this past spring... these spring ones are from right after winter, because the tree outside our window was just blossoming and the others hadn't started to take leaf yet (so it had to be way early spring). All the seasons here are so pretty (except summer in the city- but that's terrible anywhere!). Here's the current snow pictures first, and then the one spring-time picture. =)
Merry DECEMBER!!!!!
It is by far my favorite month of the year! We are finally fully fledged (how's that for alliteration?) in the season of winter, and what better way to kick it off than with the holiday spirit that comes from the anticipation of Christmas? Lights twinkling off the snow (which, happy December 1st to me, look what I woke up to!)
warm, bright windows contrasting with the white landscape, people enjoying old fashioned good things- sledding, apple cider, baking, spending time with family and caroling. Can it get any better than December?
Today I wish I had a season pass, however. I know it must be snowing like crazy up in the mountains and some of the resorts are opening for the first time today. This is the first year I haven't gone skiing on or next to on the first day of the season opening (it opened with Solitude about 3 weeks ago- two runs on man made snow for $43- YIKES...).
I wanted to post up a few pictures that have sort of gotten lost in the mix of things. First of all, I'm pretty lucky to go to school out here. School might be a drudgery if I wasn't surrounded by spectacular scenery when I walk between classes or happen to stare out a window during a boring lecture and daydream. Here is a picture taken while I realized how lucky I was to be in such a great setting:
(And I'd like you all to know that it is still snowing... even harder now then when I first woke up!)
Here are some pictures of one of the cutest little girls I have ever known. I love this little one! She's my good friend "Spandi"'s kid and she is adorable- unless she's screaming. We decided one night that we wanted to play Dance, Dance Revolution, and she wanted to play as well. So here's her moves:
I just realized they are a little blurry.
There is a beautiful mountain range that has captured my imagination since the first time I saw it eight years ago, shortly after I had first moved to Utah. It is craggy and juts way up into the sky, barely has any vegetation on it. The thing I really love about it is the definition of its stratification and they way the colors of those layers capture light- or snow- or rain- each season it takes on a different personality and even throughout the day as the light changes. I am lucky to be able to have this as part of my three-time-a-week commute up to Logan. I love to get to the point where it is in view because I know from then on I am out of the construction and congestion and grime of the city of Ogden and into the beautiful scenery that comes with northern Utah (for more pictures of what I am talking about, see my first post with the fall colors and all the pictures from my "tour of Cache Valley"). This mountain marks the beginning of all that spectacular beauty. It's what makes half of my 1.5 hour commute seem like only a second. (And I apologize for the power line in it- all these pictures on here were taken with my camera phone. This one and the one after this were taken while driving! No lectures, please.)
This next one was this amazing sight I saw as I was leaving Logan, going through a canyon nicknamed "Sardine Canyon", which is exactly where all the Fall color pictures were taken. The particular area which I took the next picture is by a little town in the middle of the canyon called Mantua (Man-way... weird, eh?). Anyway, it's always beautiful there. The sun was setting on the west side of the canyon and the light hit the clouds just so that they lit up. There is actually a rather large mountain that is hidden by that yellow cloud. The cloud is placed between two mountains, the ones you see in the foreground and the hidden one in back- it was so bright that you can't see any part of it. It was taken through my car windshield, sorry about any imperfections.
Finally, here is the current progress of our winter storm today. It is still snowing and the trees have accumulated quite a load. Everything is white and I can't see past the block around me. I feel like I am in the middle of some little country town, as I am in a historic neighborhood and there is a little wooden barn-looking house with a bright brick red home behind it, all covered in snow. The pictures are blurry only because of the amount of snow coming down and my camera phone couldn't really handle it too well. Perfect beginning to December!!!
Happy Holidays to Everyone!
warm, bright windows contrasting with the white landscape, people enjoying old fashioned good things- sledding, apple cider, baking, spending time with family and caroling. Can it get any better than December?Today I wish I had a season pass, however. I know it must be snowing like crazy up in the mountains and some of the resorts are opening for the first time today. This is the first year I haven't gone skiing on or next to on the first day of the season opening (it opened with Solitude about 3 weeks ago- two runs on man made snow for $43- YIKES...).
I wanted to post up a few pictures that have sort of gotten lost in the mix of things. First of all, I'm pretty lucky to go to school out here. School might be a drudgery if I wasn't surrounded by spectacular scenery when I walk between classes or happen to stare out a window during a boring lecture and daydream. Here is a picture taken while I realized how lucky I was to be in such a great setting:
(And I'd like you all to know that it is still snowing... even harder now then when I first woke up!)
Here are some pictures of one of the cutest little girls I have ever known. I love this little one! She's my good friend "Spandi"'s kid and she is adorable- unless she's screaming. We decided one night that we wanted to play Dance, Dance Revolution, and she wanted to play as well. So here's her moves:
I just realized they are a little blurry.
There is a beautiful mountain range that has captured my imagination since the first time I saw it eight years ago, shortly after I had first moved to Utah. It is craggy and juts way up into the sky, barely has any vegetation on it. The thing I really love about it is the definition of its stratification and they way the colors of those layers capture light- or snow- or rain- each season it takes on a different personality and even throughout the day as the light changes. I am lucky to be able to have this as part of my three-time-a-week commute up to Logan. I love to get to the point where it is in view because I know from then on I am out of the construction and congestion and grime of the city of Ogden and into the beautiful scenery that comes with northern Utah (for more pictures of what I am talking about, see my first post with the fall colors and all the pictures from my "tour of Cache Valley"). This mountain marks the beginning of all that spectacular beauty. It's what makes half of my 1.5 hour commute seem like only a second. (And I apologize for the power line in it- all these pictures on here were taken with my camera phone. This one and the one after this were taken while driving! No lectures, please.)
This next one was this amazing sight I saw as I was leaving Logan, going through a canyon nicknamed "Sardine Canyon", which is exactly where all the Fall color pictures were taken. The particular area which I took the next picture is by a little town in the middle of the canyon called Mantua (Man-way... weird, eh?). Anyway, it's always beautiful there. The sun was setting on the west side of the canyon and the light hit the clouds just so that they lit up. There is actually a rather large mountain that is hidden by that yellow cloud. The cloud is placed between two mountains, the ones you see in the foreground and the hidden one in back- it was so bright that you can't see any part of it. It was taken through my car windshield, sorry about any imperfections.
Finally, here is the current progress of our winter storm today. It is still snowing and the trees have accumulated quite a load. Everything is white and I can't see past the block around me. I feel like I am in the middle of some little country town, as I am in a historic neighborhood and there is a little wooden barn-looking house with a bright brick red home behind it, all covered in snow. The pictures are blurry only because of the amount of snow coming down and my camera phone couldn't really handle it too well. Perfect beginning to December!!!
Happy Holidays to Everyone!
