On January 10th, 31 of us arrived at Sun Valley Idaho for a week of skiing,
shopping, and partying. We were blessed by seven days of sunshine and
blue skies, with temperatures in the 20’s and low 30’s! Beginners were
at first shocked at the steepness of the “green slopes” on Seattle Ridge (almost
as steep as Main Street on Blue Mt!), but wound up loving the fact that they
were very wide and perfectly groomed. Intermediates loved all the long
cruisers served by many high-speed quads. The locals insist that riding
the 3000+ ft high speed Warm Springs chair and speeding down the groomed
cruisers underneath can give the skiers the most daily vertical in the U.S.!
Advance skiers found some groomed black-diamond trails, loved the huge bowls
off the top of Bald Mountain, and practiced their bump skills on the green-circle
bumps on Seattle Ridge (yes, green-rated bumps!). Expert skiers
had no shortage of bumps on the black and some of the blue trails (some of
them found themselves black and blue also!). Some of the bumps seem
to go on forever, but there was no ice between any of them, and nice snow
to turn on. Everyone loved the fact that the slopes were empty and
there were NO LINES the entire week!
People appreciated the convenience of having only a short walk across the
parking lot to get to the slopes, and a similarly short walk to get to shopping
(a sport eagerly done by some participants) and to the many great restaurants
(Elk anyone?). Some of us never rode the shuttle buses all week!
The heated pool and hot tub were popular partying spots, although nobody could
predict how hot they would be from day to day. Condos 501 and 701 were
the real hot spots, hosting 3 parties that week, including Mark’s annual
Life’s-a-Beach-and-then-You-Ski Party, complete with Lei’s (everyone got
Lei’d!), Pina Coladas, Hawaiian shirts, Strawberry Daiquiris, bathing beauties,
Rum-and-Cokes, Beach Boys music, Rum Runners, Jimmy Buffet music…
We had so much fun in the sun that week, that we hated to leave (especially
at 3 am!). That is probably why some of our luggage decided to stay
for a few extra days!
