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Sun Valley Ski Trip

I drove to Sun Valley to ski with Gratia in early March.

We had warm days and lots of sun. That meant hard pack ski conditions but we made the best of it.

Gratia got new carving skis that helped a lot.

I could only ski fast in these conditions.

Gratia had to work many of the mornings. I took a tour of the exterior of the Ketchum Ore Wagon Museum.

We played a few games at night. Gratia is pretty smug about getting three -5s in the game of Play Nine resulting in a landslide win.

On Tuesday Gratia had a particularly long work day so we went snowshoeing in the afternoon.

We went to Galena Lodge where they have some organized snowshoe and cross-country ski trails. This trail started with a slightly treacherous creek crossing.

The loop we did was called Psycho Loop. It was named thusly due to the very steep ascent at the beginning.

Once up on the ridge we got to take in a breathtaking view (or was it just my racing heart and the altitude?).

Another angle.

I started with lots of layers but shed most of them by this point.

One more creek crossing and we were back for lunch at the lodge.

It was quiet enough on Wednesday that we had this bear to ourselves (and the runs).

View from the Gondola.

Gratia's condo has a nice hot tub to loosen up the muscles.

Gratia took me out for a late birthday supper.

Another shot from the top of Seattle Ridge.

The views we had were spectacular. Seen here is the valley leading to Ketchum (probably the town of Hailey in view).

This is me riding the Christmas lift with Seattle Ridge in the background.

Gratia frames the view from Bowl Lane above the Broadway run.

Gratia is doing business on the mountain. Since I distracted her with so much skiing she needed to get a little work in while I was with her.

We checked out the Roundhouse. It was a busy restaurant so we couldn't get seating but the views were great from there.

Gratia wore me out. She did drive me to do 3400 feet of vertical in one non-stop run which I would never have done on my own. I logged 2345 miles on my LaCrosse on the trip there and back. On my way back I was right behind a triple rollover. Fortunately, the two parents and child were all buckled and were not injured.

Alaska Trip