Greetings everyone from beautiful, snowy Park City, Utah, where we have had a couple of crazy and exciting ski days. As predicted, we have been pounded with a foot of snow with another foot expected by tomorrow morning. The powder is awesome, the snow is quickly accumulating, and now you have to ask the question, why am I sitting in the room writing this blog? No, I didn’t hurt myself, but I did get to ride down the mountain on the back of a snowmobile, as did about 50 other people. Ok, let me start at the beginning and explain.

Like I said the snow is awesome, but along with the snow has come some extremely high winds and gusts up to 80 mph. Yesterday we blasted down a new run and when we got to the bottom of the run they informed us that the lift was closed. Are you kidding me? Now what were we suppose to do? Fortunately, I guess, this lift was near a new residential area, which was serviced by a town bus. We unclicked from our skis, hefted them over our shoulders and started hiking to the road, and up the hill (of course) to the bus stop. Believe me, that isn’t easy in ski boots. The bus finally arrived and took us back to the resort center where we promptly caught another lift and headed back to the top of the mountain. Certainly, this wind had to die down soon. I’ve been coming here for 20 years and never had this happen.

When we went to get off of this lift the winds were so strong that a ski patrol had to stand in front of us and pull us away from the moving chair lift. We could barely stand up against the driving wind. In fact, it was hard to keep from being blown over the side of the mountain. That should have been our first clue it was time to call it a day. But no way were we giving up that easily. We skied to yet another lift and got there just as they closed that one. Geez, we couldn’t catch a break. It was at that time the ski patrol shut down the mountain for dangerously high winds and sent all of us to the bottom, ending our day of skiing. In hindsight, it probably was a wise decision.

That brings me to today’s adventures. Like I said we had more than a foot of fresh snow last night and we were determined to get the most out of our last day of skiing. The winds didn’t seem too bad when we skied from the room so we headed up to the summit of the mountain as soon as the lifts opened. Well, the wind didn’t seem so bad at the bottom, but oh boy, was it gusting at the top. Maybe there was a reason there was hardly anyone on the mountain. Anyway, I yelled over the howling wind for everyone to follow me. The snow was blowing horizontal, the wind was gusting who knows how many mph, and the visibility was about 20 feet. Having said that, we had one of the most awesome runs ever, making fresh tracks down the face of the mountain making our way to the empty lift below us.

Empty lift…that is the operative word. Just as we came around the corner of the lift gates the ski patrol was there to instruct all of us to stop. Once again, they explained, the winds were too high and they had to close the lift. You would have thought they could have figured this out before we were at the bottom of the run. Luckily, at the bottom of this lift was a small “Snow Hut” which serves food and drinks. Everyone was instructed to go inside and make ourselves comfortable until they decided our fate. Never a good sign. We unloaded our gear and went inside to wait out the storm. We were still pretty optimistic, after all, the only way out of here was to take the lift up and ski out. Wrong. I knew we were in trouble when a ski patrol stood up and said, “Can I have everyone’s attention…we are evacuating the mountain… there will be snowmobiles and snow cats on the way to transport everyone off of the mountain.” Wow! This is a first!

We all stood in a staging area in the blinding snow waiting our turn to board our designated snowmobile. Women and children first! No, not really, it really didn’t seem that bad to us, but the ski patrol guys and girls seemed to be taking this a lot more seriously than we were. I thought it was pretty exciting.

So, like I said, Toni, Melissa, Jon, Jason, and I each got to ride with the ski patrol on the back of a snowmobile, slipping and sliding up the steep side of the mountain until they got us to a place where they could safely let us off. From there, we would be able to ski back down to the bottom. Sooner or later, I guess, you have to admit defeat so we reluctantly turned our skis downhill for one last run and made our way back to the resort. By the time we got to the bottom, the entire mountain, with the exception of a couple of small lifts at the bottom, had been shut down due to the intense winds and blowing snow.

Now you know why I am sitting here in my makeshift office writing you this blog while I gaze longingly out of window at the blowing snow and empty lifts. Bummer. But to Myles Freeman (Wiley X), Fred Simmonds (Pontiac), and Jamie, I can report that I have made it through 10 days of skiing, and pending no problems walking to the truck, driving to the airport, and flying home, I have successfully made it unscathed through another annual Yates ski vacation.

Once I get home, I am in high gear getting ready to start my 2008 racing season. My new Jerry Haas Pontiac GXP will be ready by the end of the week and things will go non-stop from there. Exciting developments are happening for Jim Yates Racing but I will save that for my next blog. Besides I have to go watch my Redskins take on Seattle on the first round of the playoffs. Go Skins!!!