Skiing with an ocean view

We had an e-mail server problem at work on Tuesday. Luckily they have a decent Internet connection here so I could connect remotely and fix he problem. I was able to run a repair on our e-mail database, but it took a long time so I was stuck in the house most of the day. It was raining outside, but I just had to get out and take a walk.

The city of Cordova is very picturesque has a lot of steep hills so it's a great place to walk and get some good exercise (as long as you don't mind doing it in the rain.) I followed the street signs and walked up to the the ski area.

Cordova Alaska has a population of only about 2,300 people yet they still have their own ski area, Mt. Eyak Ski Area. I don't think you could call it a 'destination ski resort' since there are no amenities at all.

The ski lift is an old one-seater that they got used from Sun Valley.

The mountain is very beautiful, though. I don't know if there are any other ski resorts that have an ocean view.

The ski area has variable hours, usually meaning weekends when conditions are good.

This is one place I will probably never end up skiing, so I'll just have to imagine how sweet it would be

Solitude skiing

Miles and I went skiing today. I took the day off from work because Brighton had Quad Wednesday which gets you a pass for $14 if you bring a sack of food for the Utah Food Bank. Unfortunately, I slept in and we didn't get to the resort until after 11:00. By that time the lot was full and people were parking on the road more than a mile away from the resort. I don't like skiing when it's packed, and I didn't want to lug all of our gear uphill so far. So we headed down the road to Solitude.

Solitude is a great little resort. They're not kidding by calling it solitude; there were no crowds. It was great to have so much room to ski and we never had to wait in line. Last year when I went to Park City it was mobbed. A few years ago they started building up the base of Solitude so it is more of a ski destination instead of just a lodge with lifts. They have a very nice little European style village with restaurants, lodgings and other après-ski activities.

Of course, since I'm a local (and not a big spender) I don't really care about the amenities. But this is a resort has a really classy vibe without all the pretentiousness. You don't see any fashionistas on the slopes, but you see hordes of rowdy post -adolescent snowboarders, either.

Their are a few things a didn't like, though. They have older lifts and only one high-speed quad. I have to admit that I am spoiled by the detachable lifts and the old fixed-grip lifts seem painful for me now. That wouldn't be so bad, but Solitude has two bases and the transition between the two is kind of awkward. There north base is really flat and you have to huff it a lot to get between the lifts. I'd have to say the layout problem was the biggest drawback. Also, the mountain is really nice but I on the lift you can hear the highway down below, which kind of spoils the remote mountain feel.

But the snow was good; really good. Since I'm not the greatest skier I usually liked the groomed trails but today there was lots of powdery stuff on top. Miles and I did pretty well, and we're learning to appreciate the finer points of powder. It was a very good ski day, but of course a bad ski day is better than a good day at work.