Up early this morning with a hangover, and headed up Big Cottonwood to Solitude … icky grey in the valley, and not much better up the canyon until about 12:30, when the sunshine finally broke through.

Today’s runs:

1. 1,500 ft — Eagle Express I - down Sunshine Bowl to Main Street
2. 1,600 ft — Powderhorn - down Diamond Lane to the Sunshine Grill, then down Hal’s Hollow
3. 1,500 ft — Eagle Express I - down Sundancer
4. 1,500 ft — Eagle Express II - down Sunshine Bowl to Same Street to Lower Tude-Dudes
5.   675 ft — Moonbeam - Straight down Main Street
6.   810 ft — Sunrise - Summit Access
7. 1,235 ft — Summit - Backdoor towards Sol/Bright, then down Corner Chute to Dynamite
8. 1,235 ft — Summit - along the traverse to either Black Bess or Voltaire (not exactly sure which, just that it was steep, it was deep, and I was hoping it didn’t break free), then down Woodlawn
9.   860 ft — Honeycomb Return - Sundancer to Post Card to Home Run and back to the car.

Just under 11,000 feet of vertical (at least on the chairs).

No photos today worth uploading.

Then into the Firm’s new building in South Jordan to make sure that everything works okay … after much frustration, it seems like all will be okay, but we’ll find out for sure tomorrow when everything is under stress.

Then shopping. Then laundry. And shortly, to bed.

… I’ve discovered that it’s possible to have an absolutely shitty day up on the slopes.

From the time I turned up the canyon, until I made it to the parking lot at Solitude almost 90 minutes later, I just had a feeling it wasn’t going to be a great day …

I get on Eagle Express for my first lift ride up to Eagle Ridge, and could barely ski back down the Sunshine Bowl and Last Run to Moonbeam Lodge; my legs just felt like overcooked pasta. Still, I tried to make a go of it …

Took the Moonbeam lift to drop Main Street down towards the Sunrise lift, through the Access to up to take Summit Lift up to the top.

Took one run down Honeycomb Canyon; took some photos, mostly pretty shitty … but did get one interesting cloud formation … so I guess the day wasn’t a total loss.

The back up Honeycomb Return, down Sundancer back to the base, the parking lot, and home.

Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture: f/4.8
Focal Length: 120 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/6 EV

Still dealing with the ongoing bout of sciatica; I’ve got an appointment with a chiropractor on Monday after work … hopefully he’ll be able to do something to relieve the most immediate pain.

The odd part (as I mentioned yesterday) is that I can’t walk hardly at all, but I’m able to ride.

So after topping City Creek Canyon yesterday, I went out again today … but this time I climbed Emigration Canyon for the first time ever, starting from the house, rather than from the zoo like many people do.

31.1 miles round trip, about 1900 feet of total climbing, almost 1500 of which was the canyon itself.

Avg speed was only 13.1 mph, but I seemed be holding steady around 10 mph going up the canyon, and the winds coming down kept me from hitting any speeds higher than 30, and most of the time I was struggling to stay above 23-24 on the descent.

View back down Emigration Canyon from near Little Mountain Summit

Sign for Little Mountain Summit

View from Little Mountain Summit over Little Dell Reservoir

View of the Wasatch from Little Mountain Summit