Advertisement
Published: April 5th 2010
Seattle Ridge
Looking toward Seattle Ridge from the Christmas chair.I start this post with a little nod to the classic movie Sun Valley Serenade because…well it’s about Sun Valley, Idaho. This spring has been particularly delightful because Beth and I had been extremely sick for a month. We had both come down with some kind of stubborn bacterial infection in the lungs that kept us from skiing for a month. We both recovered just in time for the beginning of spring and a combination of spectacular weather, skiing conditions and a two-week Spring Break. How groovy is that! The post and pictures are a celebration of this time period of several days.
I’ve been skiing there since the winter of 1976. I can’t claim to have skied all over the world, but of all the places that I have ever skied (here and abroad); none compare to Sun Valley. I thought I would share some of this with you.
My first kudos goes to Sun Valley Company itself. Service has always been good at this ski area. However, this year there is a new spirit of customer relations and service. I like being wowed and that has most certainly happened. The employee behavior reminds me of my stay at a
The Bowls
Bowls within bowls...long and steep. Ritz hotel. They have been friendly and helpful in an unprecedented manner.
Another reason for me being pleased is that the Sun Valley Company has offered customers some fabulous deals this year. For example, we bought 20 day passes (good for any day) for $750 each. That is a screaming deal! Although we don’t stay at the Sun Valley Lodge, they were offering one night double occupancy and free ski pass for $69 per person for spring skiing. If you haven’t made it to Sun Valley do it now…season ends April 18th. If you are a skier you owe it to yourself.
Beth and I skied ourselves into a pulp. The ski gods smiled upon us as we have managed to get spectacular sunny days and perfect snow conditions. We are also extremely fortunate that a good friend lives there and we get to be his guests. He is a nationally ranked Master racer and skiing with him is both instructive and great fun. Sun Valley is home to the biggest concentration of extremely good skiers gathered on one mountain. Our friend is one of the “fast guys” on the town race scene.
Although the mountains appear a bit “brown”
River Run area
College run on top of that ridge forms the north boundary of the River Run area. in the photos, don’t let that fool you. Shortly after I took the initial photos a series of storms came through and turned everything white again. Groovy! It has been a decent snow year and Sun Valley has an incredible snow making system in place. They also have beautiful lodges located in strategic locations around the mountain. The only place I didn’t take a photo of is the Lookout Lodge. It is scheduled to be demolished and replaced so I didn’t bother to take photo of that one.
For this post I used only the scenery type of photos and the next post will be more “people” oriented. It will also be more of an account of the two week period. At the moment of this writing, we still have 6 more days left on our passes. We skied 8 out of the 14 day break. Sun Valley rocked!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0414s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Steve Riccabona
non-member comment
You're Invited...next year.
The party at the bottom of Warm Springs celebrated it's fourth anniversary. Three people host the party and are referred to as the "Scorpion Group". (The party is celebrated at the bottom of Scorpion slope...with the table facing the mountain.) The three principals are Steve Rivera, Napa, CA, Robert Budihaus, Portland, OR and Steve Riccabona, Sun Valley. Riccabona's restaurant cordinates the event and arranges food and wine to be provided by both the SV Lodge and the restaurant. The event is usually the Sunday before Easter...but dependent on the forecast. We always want a sunny day for the lunch and wine tasting. Rivera Vineyards provides free wine for everyone to taste. We estimate that we served 250 people this year and everyone is invited. In addition to the food and wine, the Scorpion Group skies the mountain in the morning passing our tip envelopes to lift operators who did a great job throughout the ski season. Now that you have my email address, we can stay in touch and make sure you attend the event next year...no formal invitations necessary. Steve Riccabona, 208-721-7808.