матрациIt’s hard to believe it’s been a year since the last one and this will be my 3rd PSIA National Academy. Once you go the first time, you get hooked. The Academy is always a great time with great people and hopefully great ski conditions!
This year I drove out all 2,300 miles from Philadelphia, Pennsylania for the event. I didn’t drive out just for the PSIA Academy, however, it was time for a big life change. After sitting in front of a computer for endless hours everyday, I decided it was time to break free to go LIVE life instead of just watching it pass me by.
Since I was already booked for the 2010 PSIA National Academy, I left my job on February 17th (my birthday), skied the remainder of the season at Elk Mountain in Pensylvania and then hopped in the car for a (my first) cross country drive to Snowbird (and staying in Sandy, Utah at the base of the canyon where Snowbird is located).
It took about four days to drive out and I pulled a couple days of about 800 miles on the road. The first day was Philly to Pittsburgh, then Pitsburgh to LeClaire, Iowa via Indianapolis, then LeClaire Iowa to Cheyenne, Wyoming, then Cheyenne to almost Sandy Utah. The “almost Sandy, Utah” was the result of the tail end of a massive series of storms that dropped upwards of 97 inches of snow on Snowbird and shut down the canyone road and Snowbird resort for 2 days. I got to within about 30 miles of Sandy and the roads and visibility were so bad, I had to pull off the road at the nearest exit.
Unfortunately that exit had no hotel so I had to “sleep” in the car. It was packed so full, the seats could not go back and I couldn’t easily get to the sleeping bag. The only thing to do for comfort was to take the head rest off the drivers seat so I could put some clothes back there and put my head back at least a little bit. I’d crank up the heat in the car, then shut it off after it got hot inside, fall asleep for a few hours, wake up when it got really cold and repeat. It wasn’t the first time I slpet in the car during a massive snowstorm but was the first time I wasn’t in a sleeping bag and could not stretch out at all while spending the night in the car.
After I finally made it to the destination, I skied with “Wild Bill” for a few days at Snowbird. Soon a bunch of people from the King of Prussia Ski Club came out and I skied with them. Some stayed up at the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird, while others stayed down in Sandy at a house they rented for the week which turned out to be just a stones through from where I’m staying.
The ski club people are all gone. The temps have warmed up a lot but there is still plenty of snow. Tomorrow registration for the 2010 PSIA National Academy starts at about 8am. It’s about 2am now and I still have to pack stuff to take up there so wont get there at the crack of dawn but will shoot to be fairly close. Alta will probably be the ski destination of choice for tomorrow and then Snowbird during the entire 2010 PSIA National Academy – the best ski event of the year!
