Pow!

Our last two weeks in Utah were an almost perfect mixture of big dumps of powder snow and glorious sunny days. We skied all the major resorts in the state with Snowbird, Solitude and Snowbasin our favorites.

Utah claims to have the greatest snow on earth and we certainly had some of our best days of skiing ever. The conditions meant that Alastair was able to ski more and more extreme terrain and even I was found off piste and on the occasional double black diamond.

For his birthday Alastair took his search for the steepest and deepest powder to new heights with a day of heli-skiing in the back country of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Unfortunately, some of his group could barely muster a basic swing but this didn't stop him belting about and having an amazing day with fresh tracks all the way.

Meanwhile, I went on an unofficial moose safari at our local resort, The Canyons. Much to my excitement I found four moose and spent the afternoon skiing back and forth to look at them. It wasn't hard as one of them had taken up residence right in the middle of the piste.

During our three weeks in Utah we attained official ski bum status when we agreed to go on a time share tour in exchange for some free lift passes. We were chuffed but our hosts were less so when we turned up and it was clear we were not quite their target market (no fur coats).

To occupy our evenings and avoid the incessant adverts and dreadful "news" coverage on American TV we sought out some other traditional American activities. In particular, eating jumbo hot dogs while occasionally, between cheer leading demonstrations, audience participation games and more adverts, watching some basketball and ice hockey. Go Utah!

From Utah we headed north through Idaho and onto the famous Jackson Hole in Wyoming. There are more elk than people in Wyoming and it has been lovely to see so much wide open countryside after the bleak, industrial area around Salt Lake City.

It was warm and sunny when we arrived and with no new snow for over ten days we had resigned ourselves to spring skiing for the remainder of our trip. Then, La Nina smiled on us once again and we were soon knee deep in light, fresh powder.

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