Did you think that Mike was going to propose to me in any other setting than on the top of our "home" ski mountain, The Canyons, in a blizzard on a powder day?????? Here's how it went down, from the ornery perspective of Katie......
The winter of 06-07 in Utah was one of the driest on record -- meaning very little pow-pow for us powderhores and a only a few chances of a "taking a powder day" at work (when you live and work in Park City, its virtually an employment law to allow your employees to come into work at noon when its snows the night before or in the morning).
So when the week of February 19 produced what would be the most significant weather system of the season, everyone got giddy, including my Mikey. I was less enthusiastic, since I had already declared the season a waste. So when the forecast called for a third straight day of snow Thursday nite/Friday morning, and Mike begged me to ski with him on Friday morning, I was very reluctant. 'Fine, honey,' I moaned, 'but if its only a couple of inches when I wake up in the morning, I'm going to work'.
We woke up and I stuck my head behind the blinds to survey the damage, and maybe 3 inches had fallen but it was still coming down pretty hard. 'Aagh, I guess we can go, but I wont be happy', I complained. By the time we got to the Canyons, the wind was blowing hard and the snow was dumping. We got on the gondola and Mike, who had brought his camera because "he wanted some pictures of us in the powder, unexpectedly whipped out the instructions. Weird, I thought. 'Honey, what are you doing?' 'Well, it never hurts to use your own camera.' Yeah, but you've had that camera for many months now.
Usually on a powder day, we head straight to 9990 peak, the steepest and deepest terrain on the mountain. But with the weather, I wanted to be no where near the top of the mountain, since I knew we could find fresh powder anywhere. I complained and moaned and *#!!&-ed, and Mike finally dragged me to the 9990 chair. I was miserable and cold, the wind howling and snow blowing everywhere, and really pissed at Mike for making me go up to the top. For some reason, Mike was in a really good mood, probably because it was a powder day...but for some strange reason he kept saying that his feet were cold. 'Big deal, my feet and hands and face are frozen,' I snapped back. 'You never get cold, you liar'.
We got off the lift, and its a short 10-minute hike up to the peak, where the fresh powder was. Mike quickly put his skis on his back, and was halfway up before I got mine on my pack. This was nothing new, he always raced ahead of me. I started up and close to the top I saw Mike setting up his tripod. Weird, I thought, he's never used that thing before. As I reached the top, with now a full-on blizzard engulfing us, Mike told me go stand on the edge so he could get a "nice, panoramic picture" of me with the beautiful view from the top of the Canyons in the background. 'What?! This is dumb, you have a million pictures of this view. I am cold and just want to get some POW!' , I screamed. 'Just move over a little bit, stand there I want to use the self-timer to take a picture of us', he responded. Ahhhh! Lets just ski! Mike began the countdown, and as he moved towards me, he reached into his pocket and I saw something white flash from his hip -- a snowball, I thought, no!
The winter of 06-07 in Utah was one of the driest on record -- meaning very little pow-pow for us powderhores and a only a few chances of a "taking a powder day" at work (when you live and work in Park City, its virtually an employment law to allow your employees to come into work at noon when its snows the night before or in the morning).
So when the week of February 19 produced what would be the most significant weather system of the season, everyone got giddy, including my Mikey. I was less enthusiastic, since I had already declared the season a waste. So when the forecast called for a third straight day of snow Thursday nite/Friday morning, and Mike begged me to ski with him on Friday morning, I was very reluctant. 'Fine, honey,' I moaned, 'but if its only a couple of inches when I wake up in the morning, I'm going to work'.
We woke up and I stuck my head behind the blinds to survey the damage, and maybe 3 inches had fallen but it was still coming down pretty hard. 'Aagh, I guess we can go, but I wont be happy', I complained. By the time we got to the Canyons, the wind was blowing hard and the snow was dumping. We got on the gondola and Mike, who had brought his camera because "he wanted some pictures of us in the powder, unexpectedly whipped out the instructions. Weird, I thought. 'Honey, what are you doing?' 'Well, it never hurts to use your own camera.' Yeah, but you've had that camera for many months now.Usually on a powder day, we head straight to 9990 peak, the steepest and deepest terrain on the mountain. But with the weather, I wanted to be no where near the top of the mountain, since I knew we could find fresh powder anywhere. I complained and moaned and *#!!&-ed, and Mike finally dragged me to the 9990 chair. I was miserable and cold, the wind howling and snow blowing everywhere, and really pissed at Mike for making me go up to the top. For some reason, Mike was in a really good mood, probably because it was a powder day...but for some strange reason he kept saying that his feet were cold. 'Big deal, my feet and hands and face are frozen,' I snapped back. 'You never get cold, you liar'.
We got off the lift, and its a short 10-minute hike up to the peak, where the fresh powder was. Mike quickly put his skis on his back, and was halfway up before I got mine on my pack. This was nothing new, he always raced ahead of me. I started up and close to the top I saw Mike setting up his tripod. Weird, I thought, he's never used that thing before. As I reached the top, with now a full-on blizzard engulfing us, Mike told me go stand on the edge so he could get a "nice, panoramic picture" of me with the beautiful view from the top of the Canyons in the background. 'What?! This is dumb, you have a million pictures of this view. I am cold and just want to get some POW!' , I screamed. 'Just move over a little bit, stand there I want to use the self-timer to take a picture of us', he responded. Ahhhh! Lets just ski! Mike began the countdown, and as he moved towards me, he reached into his pocket and I saw something white flash from his hip -- a snowball, I thought, no!
But it was no snowball:) He got down on one knee (I'm so lucky to have a tele-skier as a husband), and opened up the white box to reveal the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. I started to cry, but then then my goggles fogged up, and I was laughing/crying uncontrolabley. My hands were frozen, so I couldnt even hold the ring and I made Mike put it back in his jacket because I knew I'd lose it on the way down.
Well, we eventually made it down one run, and that was the end of our powder day -- the best powder day I've ever had in my life and one that I will never ever forget.
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