From the New York Times:

Sir Edmund Hillary, the lanky New Zealand mountaineer and explorer who with Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa guide, won worldwide acclaim in 1953 by becoming the first to scale the 29,035-foot summit of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, died Friday in Auckland, New Zealand. He was 88.

His death was announced by Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand.

In the annals of great heroic exploits, the conquest of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund and Mr. Norgay ranks with the first trek to the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in 1911 and the first nonstop trans-Atlantic flight by Charles A. Lindbergh in 1927.

By 1953, nearly a century after British surveyors had established that the Himalayan peak on the Nepal-Tibet border was the highest point on earth, many climbers considered the mountain all but unconquerable. The summit was 5 ½ vertical miles above sea level (up where today’s jets fly): an otherworldly place of yawning crevasses and 100-mile-an-hour winds, of perpetual cold and air so thin that the human brain and lungs do not function properly in it.

Numerous Everest expeditions had failed, and dozens of experienced mountaineers, including many Sherpas, the Nepalese people famed as climbers, had been killed — buried in avalanches or lost and frozen in sudden storms that roared over the dizzying escarpments. One who vanished, in 1924, was George Leigh Mallory, known for snapping when asked why climb Everest, “Because it is there!” His body was found in the ice 75 years later, in 1999, about 2,000 feet below the summit.

“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”

Five inches of fresh snow starting at about 3:00 am until 7:00 am this morning up at Solitude, with another 9 to 16-inches expected during the day today.

Looks like Saturday’s gonna be a great ski day, clear, sunny, and not too cold; all I need to do is get my pull myself out of the funk I’m currently in and get my head back in the game before tomorrow morning, because I don’t want to have the same kind of day that I did 3 weeks ago, when I hurt my back.

Then, good chances of more snow on Sunday and Monday … and again on Wednesday the 28th.

Avalanche danger is reported to be high in the backcountry, but I’m a resort skier, so I’m not too worried about slides. Speaking of, the Utah Avalanche Center is seeking a much-needed increase in funding from the Utah State Legislature. The decision is expected by the end of the month, so if you haven’t already done so, contact your representative and urge additional funding. Snowbird’s website has more info.

Pal Scotty and I went up to Brighton, to use the “free” passes I won in a silent auction to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation a few weeks ago.

Since Friday night, there’s been about 2 feet of fresh powder dump all over the mountains, and it’s still snowing now. The avalanche cannons were going off all day long, which should give some idea of how sick it was up there … and this for my first day of the season.

During early runs of the day, I spent a fair amount of time face down in knee-deep powder, but later in the day, as my legs were remembering what to do, I was able to make a few less flawed runs.

I really need to take my boots in to get them custom fitted, though … the foot pain I’m getting early in the day is almost enough to kill the enjoyment altogether; again, after much fiddling with buckles, I was able to get fairly comfortable later in the day, but it should be comfortable from the beginning.

Equipment used:

• Salomon Teneighty Thruster Alpine Ski
  
• Salomon S810 Ti Alpine Binding
  
• Salomon Performa 7.5 Alpine Ski Boot
  
• Black Diamond Carbon Fiber FlickLock Ski Pole
  

So now the first day is done … and my legs are worked. Off to Arizona on Tuesday for 8 days; taking the road bike with me … really hoping to put in some miles to build a little base fitness, and get my legs back in some shape to attack the mountains again when I get back.

Picked up my 11-Pak pass to Solitude on the way back down the canyon, and passed a really nasty looking head-on collision that was in process of getting cleaned up … no ambulances, no drivers, just two trashed Subarus and two Salt Lake County Sheriffs. Looked really nasty, but can’t find any news about it to find out how serious.

And a new tradition starts, inspired by The Mop, The Mistress, and A-train.

This will be a work in progress throughout the day. My first attempt at ski-ku:

Snow is falling but,
not today. Soon several
ski resorts open.

Alpine, telemark,
Classic cross-country, and skate.
Skiing Utah Snow.

Photo swiped from Solitude Mountain Resort.

So we had our first really major winter storm last night. It started rolling in mid-afternoon … by the time I left work about 5:00, there was about an inch of snow on the ground, but it was falling hard.

People forget how to drive when it’s snowing. Lots of accidents out on the road, so it took me about 90 minutes to get home on surface streets. Both of the Cottonwood Canyons were closed; Little because of an avalanche (still not sure if it was a controlled avalanche, or if the snow just cut loose), and Big just because of how much snow there was.

We ended up with about 4 inches at my house down in the valley, so I suspect that they probably got close to 2 feet up at the resorts! Now, I just need to scrounge enough cash for lift tickets so I can go up this weekend … and since it’s currently -4° at Solitude, some slightly warmer temperatures would be nice as well; let’s at least have double-digit positives!

Update: Just got the Powder Alert from Brighton … 19 inches of fresh snow. Base is now at 77 inches!

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but many cyclists seem to have one, if not both, of the following “vices”: beer and/or coffee.

My current club, Cutthroat Racing, is sponsored by the Uinta Brewing Company. One of their mainstays is Cutthroat Pale Ale (available out-of-state, with a higher alcohol content, as Angler’s Pale Ale), but we didn’t necessarily name the team after the beer. The Cutthroat trout is also the Utah State Fish. “Cutthroat” also describes our racing style … NOT! I think most of the members of the team race just to participate for the pre- and post-race parties.

Personally, I’m partial to Uinta’s King’s Peak Porter or Bristlecone Brown Ale.

As more evidence of how important beer is to cyclists, check out the large number of jerseys available featuring beer on them. Cannondale makes the “Full Suspension Pale Ale” jersey (another local Utah brew). Colorado Cyclist distributes a series of jerseys based on Denver’s Flying Dog Brewery’s litter of brews. Vermarc is making Breckinridge Brewery “Avalanche Amber Ale” jerseys. The California Road Club used to be sponsored by San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing.

And then there is coffee; that wonderful hot, dark, aromatic cup of stimulating heaven! The only thing that gets many of us moving in the mornings. The early morning caffeine fix! Is there anything better? One of the top US domestic racing teams is even sponsored by Jittery Joe’s.

There is even a website dedicated to the fine art of carrying coffee on the bike, full of reviews of various thermal bottles that may or may not fit into a standard waterbottle cage. I’m partial to the OXO GoodGrips LiquiSeal Travel Mug, which actually is NOT reviewed there. It’s riple-sealed so it doesn’t leak, but has a push-button top that opens the sipping spout, and can be operated one-handed. And it does fit into most standard waterbottle cages, such as the King Stainless Steel bottle cages or the Elite Ciussi INOX. It may not fit into some of the more esoteric cages, like the Tacx Tao.

Beer and coffee. One of these days, I’m going to get a homebrew set, and see if I can figure out a good way to mix the two in a nice dark porter.