Park City, Utah

    Leaving home at 4:30 am makes the day really long.  We found our group easily in the almost empty terminal and used our TSA Pre-boarding pass to skip most of the security line (except for one of us who had to be patted down after forgetting to take the metal objects out of his pocket).  Our flight to Denver left from Terminal 2 at 6:30 without any issues where we met up with our one hour flight to Salt Lake City.  I packed a bagel for breakfast for each of us which was lucky since SouthWest offers no food at all - just juice and coffee.
   We arrived in Salt Lake late morning and waited for additional members of our group who were flying in from Florida and Arizona.  Everyone found all their luggage and skis and all 39 of the over 60 Ski Club boarded a chartered bus for the 45 minute ride to Park City.  Within minutes of leaving the airport we were in the Wasatch mountains surrounding Salt Lake.  While there was no snow in town the mountains are white and the drive was beautiful.
    Park City is a pretty little town.  It boomed in the 1860's after the discovery of gold, silver and lead.  The silver mines flourished and Silver King Mine was one of the most famous in the world.  By the 1950's the price of silver was down and the town almost disappeared.  The ski industry was growing, however, and the town developed a resort called Treasure Mountain which opened in 1962. Park City now has two big ski resorts: Deer Valley and Park City Mountain.  Both resorts were major locations for ski and snowboard events at the 2002 Winter Olympics.  We are planning to visit the Olympic site this week.
    The forecast for tomorrow is for snow - 6 - 8 inches.  This should be pretty, but hard on the skiiers for their first day on the mountain.  We had a nap and then went to the "Arrival" party to socialize with the club and get ski passes and maps.  There are several other ski clubs staying here at the Hilton but we are both the largest and the oldest group.  These are some hearty skiers - most in their mid-70's to 80's.  Soon its early to bed for us, yawn.