Millcreek Ski & More

I had to run some errands today that took me near downtown Salt Lake City, so since I was in the area I decided to drop by REI then hit Millcreek Canyon for some cross country skiing.

REI is evil. I already spent a chunk of change on Christmas, and here I walk into a candy store for big kids (like me). And they had lots of stuff on sale. How does REI expect anyone to resist? They know they have me, evil capitalist pigs! What's that you say? I should have more will power? Hah, no one can resist the Siren song of outdoor gear on sale - it can't be done. Case closed. I will hear no more purely hypothetical observations - especially if they suggest I have some sort of weakness. On the up-side, I passed on more things than I bought - doesn't that count for something?

I left REI on a shopping high and headed to Millcreek. I made it to the parking lot around 5:30 PM so it was already mostly dark. I went with the light cross country gear instead of the beefier touring stuff so I could go faster - that was the theory. On my way up I passed around 10 people coming down - most had headlamps, a few didn't. I had my Petzl Tikka XP lighting my way (it's a good little headlamp). I was kick-gliding at a decent pace for the first mile, then I had to slow down. The slope turns a bit steep just before Elbow Fork, but the skis gripped OK and I was able to go straight up.

It was about here that I started feeling a pain in both heels. I knew what it was - my heel was slipping in the boot thus rubbing my skin. But I ignored it and kept going - I'd skied Granite Flat in these boots last week and been just fine. Ya, dumb. It's just like how I evidently must get a sunburn each year to remind me to wear sunscreen. I made it about 2.5 miles then the pain was just too much. I put a bandage on the right heel (it was worse), but it was too late - the top layer of skin was rubbed off and it was painful to any touch. So I headed down after snapping this picture (of dubious worth).



Going down was fun. I double-poled in the flat-ish spots and snow-plowed the few steeps spots. There were some good stretches where you could just straight-run.

This was my first time to ski Millcreek and I liked it. It gets a lot of use by hikers, snowshoers and skiers, and the snow was well packed, but only icy in a few spots (that may change with the weather). Hopefully I can drag UTRider up to Millcreek and introduce him to cross country skiing.

But the story isn't over. With two painful feet I was NOT happy with those boots. So I went to REI looking for solutions and I found two. I bought some heel inserts that will hopefully prevent the slipping/rubbing. And I bought some new boots that were on the closeout rack. Ya, I went nuts at REI today. So the REI haul was: new cross country ski poles, boots and gloves, a new long-sleeve cycling jersey, the heel inserts and an insulated tube for my CamelBak.