Driving 23 miles took us more than three hours.
Around 8 p.m. on a recent Friday night, CalTrans announced that, beginning 20 miles west of the top of Donner Pass, Calif., all vehicles needed traction tires and either chains or four-wheel/all-wheel drive. We were just three exits from the chain-up checkpoint when we drove into mayhem. Semis were lined up in the pullouts, and their drivers were chaining up. Installers dressed in bright yellow rain gear were, for a fee, helping car drivers get their chains on. Getting to the checkpoint took us an hour.
At the chain-up checkpoint, we exited the highway, and my husband put chains on our car’s front tires, and then he drove a few hundred yards and hopped back out to double-check that the chains were secure (an important step if you don’t want to leave your chains on the highway). Then a CalTrans worker waved us back onto the freeway. We didn’t get far before we were at a standstill again.
Yes, conditions were bad—an early season storm started as rain and turned to snow … and lots of it—but I’m certain we could have all moved through smoothly albeit slowly if drivers didn’t make so many boner moves. Read More …
Zen and the Art of Managing Powder Panic
By: JGW | December 30th, 20104 Comments »
Every region of the skiing world has its own particular form of this terrible ailment or morning malaise … a rapacious brooding that turns happy citizens into gorilla-chest-pounding, car-horn-honking, Ben-Hur-on-the-traverse fiends. This sanctimonious demon’s name: powder-induced panic. Let me elucidate a specific example …
Salt Lake City’s proximity to habit-forming ski terrain is, like almost anything during this merry-go-round around the Sun, both a boon and bane. Yes, friends, just like Peter Parker’s uncle once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” If you haven’t experienced how empowering 24 inches of Wasatch-density awesomeness can be, then maybe it’s time you took a trip.
But let’s not forget what Lord Acton said: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Salt Lake is within short driving distance of more than ten ski and riding resorts—and the greater-Wasatch-front sprawl boasts more than 2 million citizens. Consider the cumulated monster cloud of psychic anxiety that collects over this salty front each morning fresh snow has fallen … it’s like Ray’s incarnation of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man to the Nth degree. Seriously, people WILL lose their shit.
Allow me to offer some suggestions to help you harness this power (and be responsible) without letting it overcome you: Read More …
Tags: resorts, skiing, snowboarding
Posted in Commentary, How To |