I’ve made it back – lucky I think given the many days that I ended up on the wrong side of a steep cliff face <g>. Man, I needed this time away from work – I didn’t really realize it until I was outside on the mountain cruising the powder.

I always take my computer with me when I go somewhere to at least keep up with email and orders on the site, but this time around I tried to make a point of not working on anything beyond these essential things while on vacation. I think a few phone calls were lost in the, uh, transmission as well. I remember my cell phone ringing a few times while going down a hill covered to my waist in powder. I remember thinking just how far away that phone sounded <g>.

Utah was an interesting place to visit. The liquor laws certainly are twisted to say the least. Not that it matters much – after 6 days on the mountains there was hardly a desire to go out and go crazy at night. Other than in Park City there wasn’t much going on in the first place.

Utah – the greatest snow on Earth, scream license plate banners. I’m not so sure that’s really true at least not for us on this trip. Rather than the light Utah powder you hear about there was more of the California wet cement snow for much of the trip. The exception was the last couple of days when the light and fluffy stuff was coming down a foot at a time in whiteout blizzard conditions that made for an incredible last day.

We also spent a half day hiking into the back country and coming down ‘blind’. Followed by two rogue dogs who surprisingly kept up with us on the way up (beating us to it in a big way), but also on the way down. Picture two dogs ‘swimming’ through two feet of fresh snow at the speed of a downhill snowboarder. Hmmm… maybe it was the animal crackers that made them come along. Treats for all on the bottom! Unfortunately, my camera decided to conk out for this awesome hike and ride – and most importantly for the dogs. Why does technology always gotta spike just at the wrong time?

And now, it’s all over. Time to get back to reality. Well, maybe not – at least it’s windy today so maybe I can get out on the water later.  Meanwhile a pile of messages and work have piled up – it’s gonna be a busy day.

I’ve uploaded some pictures from the trip here:

http://www.west-wind.com/rick/photoalbum/utah2004/