Sun Valley 2006
Trip Report

What great week we had!  Everyone made the flight on time earlier Saturday Morning with ID in hand.  Northwest had already printed out our stuff so it was very easy to walk up, check luggage and get to the gate.  Plane left on time, made the connecting flight after picking up the MN crew with time to spare and got into Boise right on schedule. Margie, from Winter Ski and Sport, was there to meet and greet.  We did have some initial confusion about which bus was ours but before you knew it, we were on board headed for the slopes (via the grocery/liquor store).  What was stated as a 20 min trip to a nearby full service store ended up being more like 10 minutes. . .didn't even have time to finish my introduction!  Everyone made a 30 min grocery dash and we were headed to the mountains and our long bus ride.  At least the ride was in the afternoon so we had a chance to see the scenery on the way up.  After a long day of travel, we were sure glad to get to the Sun Valley Lodge.  We all registered in, bell staff took the luggage to the rooms, we unloaded our groceries from the bus, and we were there!

Speaking of the Sun Valley Lodge, our accommodations were certainly posh with the exception of some accordion doors in some of the condos.  The service was exceptional from the staff on the slopes, ski patrols and in the lodge. Firewood was chopped and available each evening when we got back in from skiing/boarding for some wonderful fireside chats. Towels were on heated bars and every request (hummmm) was answered promptly.

Sunday morning found beautiful skies, great slopes, and wonderful skiing!  The runs were on the steep side and long but they were beautifully maintained and groomed to perfection.  The weather for the rest of the week was clear skies and mild temps which was great for just cruising.  The rest of the week was the same.  We couldn't have asked for better weather and conditions.

As we went with the Blue Ridge Ski Council, there were plenty of parties.  The Sunday Welcome Party, Tuesday's Après Ski Party, and the dinner dance on Thursday were all great.  We had 11 of the 25 trip members participate in the NASTAR race on Tuesday at noon.  Dean Skallman was our Bronze winner!  Burt Bronk rented skis as he didn't feel comfortable on his board for the race and Candy got the worst time on the course.  It seemed there was a big rut on the yellow course but she saw this powder on the side and went for it.  But this strategy really didn't work too well as her time was over a minute for getting down the course.  The club did not receive any other awards at the Apres Ski party but we did party!  

Other quotes from the group.

Things I liked about Sun Valley were the wide open spaces with no crowds and the first good snow we've had in our last 3 or 4 trips.  Even though the mountain was well laid out and was plenty challenging for us (some of those blue runs would be blacks at other resorts), a younger skier who was looking for a lot of extreme and/or gnarly runs would be disappointed.  It was great fun to ski the nice soft bumps on Picabo's Street and how much we (Kim F., Bill B, Linda S, and Joyce B) enjoyed watching Dean S. find shoulder deep powder, he went in head first!  Luckily, he survived the fall with minimal damage!

Sun Valley has the biggest hot tub complex west of the Roman Public Baths!

The Green and Blue runs were the steepest that I have been on.

Great trip with great snow!

The maid staff was trying to get George M and Bobby J together when they pushed the twin beds together one morning!

John M, Dean S, and Burt B were the only ones that I knew skied or boarded all 6 days.

At the end of such a wonderful week was the bus ride back to Boise.  After leaving a little bit late from the Lodge, We ran into white out conditions on Interstate 84.  Our bus driver, Martin, did a wonderful job of getting us to the airport in the nick of time to get our flight by dodging jack knifed tractor trailers while having one of the bus's wipers on the fritz.  Margie from Winter Ski and Sport was on hand at the airport and had our stuff again printed up by Northwest to help get us through the check in process.  There were still a few glitches but all managed to make the plane home and we all had a safe week on the mountain.