Monday 4 February 2008

POWDER DAY PARK CITY

The sun was shining and we were out, left our digs at 8.30am returned at 4.45pm knackered, but we've had a great day the snow was up too the gunnels and we really toured the mountain. We had a great laugh on one run it's called Tycoon a double blue,I would say this run has not been pisted for months the snow was waist deep there were more bodies on this area than you would get on boot hill people were throwing themselves everywhere, to such an extent there were whole families writhing around in the snow, watching them all slowly getting to their feet brushing themselves down preparing to go, only to be wiped out by another Kamikazi family, great fun. Not that we fared any better on another area I was skiing along when I saw all this untracked terrain I thought thats for me, as I turned into it my ski's stopped dead I could hear my bindings releasing as I sailed through the air head first into 3ft of powder snow it must have taken 10 minutes for me to get re-started, later on Angus was boasting how he had skied a black run with only fifteen turns well done I said and with that he turned and fell flat on his face. ( how the mighty fall ). We met a nice bunch of guys on the lift today five of them similar age to myself all farmers from Washington state asked how the old country was doing, all had been to Britain and were thinking of coming next year if the dollar was stronger not to miss a sale I gave them the pub details.

Our digs here at Park City is called The Chateau Apre's the sort of name Benny Hill would have dream't up, it does us but it's what you'd call utillity, it has rooms such as we have and also mens and womens dorms which houses some of the strangest people I have ever met, they all seem to love talking to me and Angus but don't give each other the time of day. There's Joe from New Orleans ( I didnt leave till the water was up to my chin) who seems to spend the whole time sitting in the communial area with ice packs on his knee's telling me it's all down to the Vietcong. There's this other guy Francis ( but you can call me Frank ) from New York who is an absolute ski nut, if it's not steep rough and scarey I don't wanna know he says, he also talks as if we are standing fifty yards away and says things like Yea well we all know Hilary Clinton's a dyke that's why Billy boy keeps playing around with all those young chicks imagine a dyke in the white house, at this point I could feel myself trying to resist the urge to turn round to see who was listening, the only person was Trudy ( yes you've guessed it) who's reaction was oh really is that so, most of this of course went straight over Angus's head. Combine these two with the many others who seem to come and go by the hour it makes for a fascinating experience.
The "Chateau"as they like to call it has been owned by the same family for over forty years and it shows, It's not exactly Fawltey Towers but I am sure if John Cleese was here he would be getting some great material for a script it's run primarily by three people the father, the mother and the son.
The fathers prime directive is cleaning the rooms and towel replenishment on which he continually carps on about how many towels get used, but given that the biggest towel is only about 20" x 20" it takes three to dry oneself. Although in terms of towel usage if Angus had his way he'd be the fathers perfect guest.
The sons prime directive is breakfast and snow clearance his pet thing is the mess people make when pouring out the cereals, the cereals are stored in containers that dispense a given amount at the turn of a handle, one turn about ten cheerios or bran flakes appear in the bowl, second turn a veritable avalanche of cereal emits from the machine spraying cereal everywhere hence the mess, when I pointed this out to him, his response was, it's not the machines it's the people they don't know how to use them!!!!!!. He told me he has never known any work other than the "Chateau" he played here as a kid and has worked here since leaving college I thought maybe it's a good job the machines don't work properly.
The mother she is there to nag the other two and nag she does, there's snow on the steps, need more coffee in the breakfast room, where's all the towels did'nt you get them laundered last night? leave the snow get the towels sorted out, what do you mean we're out of muffins I told you to order them, it's snowing again get the steps cleared. The son wears oversized boots which he drags along with his shoulders slouched (just like a kid does when having a tantrum) every time she barks out an order.
All this is making for an interesting stay.
No photos today camera playing up again.
Tomorrow we are definitely going to Solitude.

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