在猶他Snowbird雪場磕磕碰碰測試新雪板

猶他鹽湖城（Salt Lake City）雖離南加州不到兩小時的空中航程，但卻從未涉足。似乎真驗證那句“離家門口越近，就越沒去過”的旅遊名言。前段時間自己剛好換了新的Freestyle單板，而機票和酒店的價錢也蠻配合，終於一嚐猶他滑雪的滋味！

1.猶他雪場分布圖（來自網上，點擊看大圖）


因為是一個人去，租車並不劃算。而隻是利用普通周末滑兩天，決定了我這次最多去兩個雪場。在UTA（Utah Transit Authority）的網站上查到有專門的雪場巴士從鹽湖城市中心去SNOWBIRD/ALTA和SOLITUDE/BRIGHTON。啟程前盡管有去查它們的滑道圖，但研究得並不仔細。四個雪場中Snowbird名氣最響，麵積最大。很自然的，第一天我就選了它。事實上，為了這個想當然的決定後來我是吃了苦頭。

不知是新到一個地方還是心裏太興奮，盡管出發前不幸患上流感，在鹽湖城周六的早上四五點鍾就醒過來。實在睡不著，剛過六點就拿著雪板從酒店出發。這麽早，雪場巴士還沒開呢：）幸虧鹽湖城的公交係統很方便，於是我先坐輕軌，再到山腳下換巴士到Snowbird。一路上，看著路旁與科羅拉多和加州景色截然不同的陡峭山穀，心裏不禁有點打鼓。

2.UTA雪場路線圖（來自網上UTA官方網站）


3.到了雪場，還沒到八點。簡單吃了點早餐後，走出室外，哇，好漂亮的景色！（當時想不到那一刻其實是Snowbird上當天最好的天氣。）


4.Snowbird雪道圖（來自網上。按圖的標識，雪場最高峰HiddenPeak是有一條彎彎曲曲的藍道下來的。加上天氣好的鼓勵，我決定馬上上HiddenPeak!）


5.上HiddenPeak的巨型纜車（據說一次可載百多人!）


山上天氣真的是說變就變！藍天白雲沒一會，轉眼就烏雲密布，天空還飄起片片雪花。上到HiddenPeak，狂風大作，眼前一片漫然：（看到沒什麽好景，隻好趕緊下山。唉，那條所謂的下山藍道CHIP\'S ACCESS說它是羊腸小道一點都不過分，又窄又彎。心想這還沒熱身就上了賊船！沒辦法，硬著頭皮蹭著單板磕磕碰碰地下山。幸虧新換的Freestyle單板韌性好，加速不快。沒太艱難到了半山腰，馬上坐下來喘口氣。

6.在Snowbird半山腰眺望山穀外的鹽湖城




人真是不見棺材不流淚！可能這次從Hidden Peak下來不是太費勁，也可能買了US$ 69的全天票隻坐一次纜車心有不甘。到了下午，就算天氣更差也再上了一次Hidden Peak。原本計劃是滑背麵的Mineral Basin，但能見度實在太差！橙色的雪道標記杆在狂風暴雪裏根本看不清，而看著從Mineral Basin下麵坐雙椅吊車上來的滑雪者就象是突然從另一個世界裏蹦出來一樣。沒法子，我隻好沿著上午滑過的那條CHIP\'S ACCESS下山。嗬嗬，這回我是真嚐到苦頭了！在這種能見度幾乎為零的情況下，人對距離的判斷力幾乎喪失。有一次不知不覺就滑到雪道的邊緣，而下麵就是似乎望不到底的雙黑道。磕磕停停，實際上並不太長的CHIP\'S ACCESS感覺無窮無盡！好不容易才到了半山腰。All right, that is enough for one day! 接下來我最多就上到半山腰。

7.在山下中午休息時隨便拍了幾張






8.下午轉瞬即逝的陽光


滑雪時碰上感冒是非常討厭的：（就算是剛喝水，嘴很快就幹，塗再多的潤唇油都沒用。而水喝的多就容易想上廁所。整天裏我幾乎是每上一次山，下來就得上廁所、省鼻涕和喝水：）也因為如此折騰，到了下午三點多我就歇腳休息了。趁著雪場巴士還沒到，在Snowbird裏亂竄拍照：）

9.你這小子照我幹嘛？


10.父女情深


11.從天而降的巨大纜車讓我想起科幻片的場景


12.雪場的入口處


在Snowbird的網站上會提到它和鄰近的Alta被SKIING雜誌連續五年評為全美第一雪場。如果想當然地認為所有人都會喜歡這裏，那就大錯特錯了！現場的感覺是Snowbird最適合水平較高的傳統滑雪者，因為它的山勢陡峭，大部分雪道並不寬，而鄰近的Alta更是不歡迎滑單板的。當天在雪場裏大概就隻有四分之一的人是滑單板的，其餘都是滑Ski。實際上在巴士能到的雪場中，我應該去稍北一點的Solitude和Brighton！

從鹽湖城回來，我在網上查了查，按維基上看到的資料（02年冬奧會舉行比賽的場館/地方如下）：

Venues

Deer Valley - Slalom, Freestyle Moguls and Aerials
Utah Olympic Park - Bobsleigh, Luge, Skeleton, Nordic combined and Ski jumping
Soldier Hollow - Cross-country skiing, Biathlon and Nordic combined
Rice-Eccles Stadium - the opening and the closing ceremonies
Peaks Ice Arena - Ice hockey
E Center - Ice hockey
Delta Center - Short track speed skating and Figure skating.
Park City Mountain Resort - Giant Slalom, Snowboard GS and Halfpipe
Snowbasin - Downhill, Combined Downhill and Super-G
Utah Olympic Oval - Speed skating

Snowbird並不在名單裏。哈，不知當年組委會是否覺得它的地勢對奧運選手也太富挑戰性了？：）

不過說回來，Snowbird的配套設施還是相當完善，US$ 69的全天票相對科羅拉多/加州的雪場而言也便宜些。無論如何，猶他確實是個滑雪的好地方。最好的行程是呆一個星期（也最好有車），把所有好的雪場都滑遍！：）

猶他滑雪官方網站：SKIUTAH.COM

關於不歡迎滑單板的北美雪場（還剩下三個），請看摘自LA Times的：
No-go zones for snowboarding down to a final three

Taos Ski Valley lifts its ban Wednesday, leaving only a trio of U.S. sites reserved for \'two-plankers.\' Snowboard Nation\'s Jake Burton and others call the controversial exclusion \'fascist.\'

By Devon O\'Neil, Special to The Times
March 18, 2008

ALTA, UTAH -- He strolled across the snow at 3 o\'clock on a brilliant February afternoon, his goggles warding off the high-altitude glare that makes Utah\'s Little Cottonwood Canyon glow.

But his dark lenses couldn\'t combat the laser-beam stares, which suddenly homed in on his head from all directions. At the crowded base of Alta Ski Area, one of the last remaining North American resorts to ban snowboarders, what you don\'t want to be at this time of day is a scruffy twentysomething with baggy pants and a board under your arms.

In other words, exactly the mold this guy fits.

It wasn\'t his first time as the only cat in a houseful of dogs, that much was obvious. He challenged the stares in silence, gazing in their direction with pursed lips but maintaining his stride. When a man on the outskirts asked him to explain his choice of equipment -- What\'s with the board, dude? -- the snowboarder ignored the question and walked right by, shaking his head.

After a minute, he was gone, and the winter revelers returned to the scene before them: another bluebird day in a vanishing, and controversial, brand of paradise -- one that has incited civil rights arguments for years, but which also attracts some of the most devoted powder seekers on the planet.

On Wednesday, Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico will open to snowboarders for the first time in its 53-year history. Operators of the storied family ski area cite the business they\'ve turned away for decades -- nearly 30% of lift tickets these days are paid for by snowboarders -- as well as the need for fresh energy.

The significance of the move, however, is broader than introducing a more inclusive Taos. It means there are now only three remaining holdouts that enforce a snowboard ban: Mad River Glen in Vermont, and Deer Valley and Alta, located eight miles apart outside Salt Lake City.

The effort to protect such exclusivity dates back more than two decades. When snowboarding first went mainstream in the 1980s, the war between knuckle-draggers (snowboarders) and two-plankers (skiers) raged -- with snowboarders considered the renegade bunch.

Only a few resorts in the nation allowed boarders back then; the vast majority found strength in unity, denying the existence of something that was radically different than what they\'d grown up with.

But over the years they gave in, one by one, until finally only four remained. Taos, a remote, expert skier\'s utopia founded in 1955 by a tough, bearded German named Ernie Blake, became something of a mecca for skiers intent on making turns sans snowboarders.

When Blake\'s 90-year-old widow and descendants decided to drop the ban in December, the cozy little culture they helped create became a national issue.

Word spread through the industry like celebrity gossip. On the front lines, longtime Taos skiers did everything but organize a revolution. In one instance, an aggressive local confronted a visiting media member who was using a snowboard to get around the mountain, explaining in terms more blunt than these, Your kind isn\'t welcome here.

Adriana Blake, Ernie\'s granddaughter, who runs Taos\' marketing department, said she refunded five season passes for locals peeved at the change in policy, even though it wasn\'t going into effect for four months.

I think we knew it would be a huge deal, but I don\'t think we realized the extent of how huge a deal it would be, she said.

The fiercely protective sentiments aren\'t confined to Taos. Although Alta spokesman Tyler Jackson said he fields his share of nasty phone calls and e-mails from snowboarders, the volume pales in comparison to the number of complaints he got a few years ago when a group of local skiers spotted a snowboarder descending an Alta trail -- by permission -- during an early morning tour organized in conjunction with sister resort Snowbird.

At Mad River Glen, a nonprofit co-op with 1,800 shareholders, old-school ski patrollers have been known to call the cops when they catch boarders poaching off-limits terrain.

In response to it all, snowboarding icon Jake Burton and his Burton Snowboards team launched a competition this winter in which they offered $5,000 per holdout ski area -- $20,000 total -- to the rider or riders who produced the best video of a poach in action.

Burton called the remaining bans fascist, pointing out that in some cases the areas lease public land, then discriminate by not allowing snowboarders to use it.

(Adriana Blake dismissed that claim, saying, It would be like the government coming into your restaurant and telling you what kind of food to serve. We\'re only required to treat the forest well.)

Still, hard feelings persist among snowboarders. Alta local Dylan Crossman, 27, a five-time national champion extreme skier, says when he visits other Utah resorts, he\'ll often see a mutation of the classic Alta snowflake sticker plastered on riders\' boards, with the snowflake turned into a swastika.

You tell people you ski at Alta, said Crossman, and they\'re like, \'Oh, so you\'re one of those guys.\'

Indeed: an Altaholic, as they\'re known, consistent with the almost cult-like following that characterizes Mad River and Alta devotees. Deer Valley is on the opposite end of the posh scale, employing a five-star approach that includes ski valets who help guests click into their bindings next to slope-side mansions; yet the fundamental bond among the three remains: no snowboarders allowed.

The stakes are different for each. Whereas California\'s busiest resort, Mammoth Mountain, averages more than 1 million visits per year -- including 400,000 by snowboarders -- Mad River is happy if it hits 85,000. Nevertheless, the goal, to turn a profit, is the same for all.

Deer Valley, which allows its guests to vote on its skiing-only policy, is coming off a third consecutive season in which it set records for revenue and skier visits.

At Mad River, lift lines are a half-hour long when it snows -- a welcome sight for shareholders, among whom only a two-thirds opposition vote would overturn the ban.

And at Alta, without disclosing numbers, Jackson said the policy remains strictly a business decision, one that\'s reevaluated every year by resort officials but which he doesn\'t foresee changing any time soon.

If we look out the window one day and no one\'s here, Jackson said, the snowboard ban is one of those things we might consider, among others.