The Lure of Mountains

In preparation of my upcoming move to Seattle I was bringing a carload of stuff to the cheapest storage place I know: Mom and Dad’s house. My plan was a quick and cheap road trip: Leave Las Vegas Friday afternoon, be in Seattle by Sunday. Maybe even Saturday night.The stupidity of such a plan was apparent as soon as it got dark. The problem wasn’t road visibility, it was mountain visibility. Peering out my car window I could barely make out snow capped peaks in the moonlight. I saw just enough to realize that I was missing great scenery. It was killing me.I stopped for the night outside of Salt Lake City, and awoke to blue skies and those mountains. Completely blanketed in snow. Not exactly an avid skier, I hadn’t even pondered the possibility of lifts being open this late in April. But there was no way I could keep driving on.I pulled into a Starbucks to look up Utah ski information on their free WiFi. Taking my obligatory latte order was a cute but scruffy looking guy with a sunburned face, save for the white goggle shapes around his eyes. Ah-ha. No Internet would be necessary.Cute skier-Starbucks guy assured me that roads were clear, lifts were open, and pointed me up highway 209. Less than an hour later I was at Alta ski resort unloading kitchenware out of my trunk to get to the ski pants I had packed in the back. My goggles and gloves were still in Vegas though. I explained my predicament to the gals at the ski shop who let me borrow some goggles for the day. They suggested I search the “lost and not found” bin for gloves. Jackpot. Obviously I had to rent skies, boots, and poles, but for a reasonable $22. Alta was gorgeous, and surprisingly un-crowded for a Saturday, although things did pick up in the afternoon when the “ski-for-free-after-3” deal began. Alta runs this deal EVERY DAY! It’s enough to make me want to move to Salt Lake instead of Seattle. Or at least delay the rest of my road trip for one more day…