2025 - Summit County, CO

Back to Colorado for first time in a while, in what is being called the friends and family trip. Mark, Zach and Darmen got a couple days at breck, fink/me got half day at a-basin and we all skied together (after pop tarts) for a powder day (6"overnight, 5 more during the day) at copper. Surprise ski hill purchase of the day - a water bottle for $2.83, lost after 2 days.. Good day with powder over moguls, then cooked in. Day 2 at a-basin, was cold. Steep runs and did some shorter hikes in zuma bowl. Good snow. Next day, barely packed up the too small car for 90min drive to Steamboat in -18f temps. Steamboat was best day yet- lots of powder in the trees (they had 15"), some good steeps, and 4 moose. Day 5, still no violence which we attribute to zach/good snow, back up to more untracked snow in the trees off mahogany. Nobody here, amazing. Cooked in at our deluxe almost ski-in condo. Day 6 (a record?) was a half day without zach. Then we left mark at yampa airport as he actually sets out on a month (?) long ski adventure without any specific itinerary. Great trip, great snow throughout. 

  

2024 - Japan

To celebrate our 60th turn around the sun, planned a two week trip to Japan to ski niseko and Lotte Arai.   Lots of travel logistics, including our first mid skitrip flight (between islands) and some non-ski tourism.  Pre-trip by mark to San Diego/Los Angeles and Jon to BC to minimize time spent in December in Boston.  And fink got a pretrip in Toronto due to a missed connection (of his bag!). And then an earthquake and serious plane crash at haneda delayed him and jon (who was given 2000 yen in cash!) further.  A message from up high? Climate change definitely ramping up where Sunday river was closed for an entire week, no snow in north van mountains and the only skiing in northeast is on man-made ribbons of white death.  

Top 10 things to remember:

Earthquake/plane crash

First runs w/takeo

Sapporo airport

Roger

Reverence at 1st temple

Presentatiion in restaurants and shops

Train infrastructure 

Spotless streets, bathrooms

Inexpensive and excellent food

Bike parking device

BC conditions mediocre- panorama was fully open but no powder.  And slow lifts.  Revy had softer snow with the inversion and then some dust on crust.  Got 4.5 days (and had to pay for 4 of them with ikon blackout), good jump start to the season.  And got to see Amanda, Matt and Wendy! 

I spent a day in Tokyo (cancelled flight), walking everywhere from imperial palace to outdoor fish market, while mark and fink got a sunny day in at niseko. We all met up Friday, meaning it took a collective 7 days (+3 lost due to intl date line), with several wasted hotel rooms, to all get together. An odyssey of trains (worked well) and planes (not so much).

Snowed most of the day on day 2, had some nice runs in the trees.  Great to see winter!  Staying at niseko park hotel - very genuine with tatami mats and Ensen, an easy walk to the mountain.  The mountain itself is actually 4 interconnected resorts on one huge hill.  Good vertical, lots of birch trees and lots of lifts-old, new and obsolete.  

Day 3 woke up to more snow (maybe 5", kinda heavy), and got out there by around 9 (rebooting delays due to fink not putting on his snowpants, and then forgetting his phone).  Tried to ski to anapuri but top rope was closed off and after 2 tries on the pizza box chairlift, we just took the bus.  Some good powder runs, Ramen for lunch with a very inefficient ordering system, and got a little lost in the woods before crowded  bus ride back.  Lowenstein goggle issue a tbd for tomorrow's guided tour of backcountry.  Ensen, early curry-soup dinner and packing with early start tomorrow.  Walked by fun food truck area. 

This the first and only day of the trip where we all actually woke up and slept where originally planned. 

Last day in niseko started early, with minimal breakfast from store as hotel breakfast wasn't open.  Takeo picked us up 7am and we drove to hanazono area where we got on the lift by 7.30 for 5 runs with 8" of fresh tracks in totally untracked fields before lifts opened to public. Heaven.  Good pace, great snow,  totally worth the $130 (half price as we couldn't ski outside the ropes).  Stayed with guide until 10.30 and he showed us more great untracked stashes, then we got an early lunch and skied till 3 in howling wind and snow. Quick ensan, then another travel nightmare as snow canceled train (after 3 hours of sitting a couple miles down the tracks) to airport for our flight tomorrow. Back to kutchan where we found nice hotel and greasy ramen. Spent 2 hours on the phone until 1am with "roger" trying to change our flight, before realizing he didn't work for airline and really couldn't help us.  Niseko evaluation - great snow, lots of variety and trees, not very steep.  Worth the trip (but I'm saying I've got ptsd and never returning) .

Woke up in kutchan, no way to leave after 68cm, which "Since we started doing daily snow reports this is easily the deepest day we have EVER seen." And still snowing VERY hard for most of the day. So we went back to niseko BUT most lifts were closed.  Nothing to do but hike.  Got 3 runs of not quite touring.  Back to kutchan for another night,  and hopefully leaving tomorrow as mountain unlikely to open according to locals.  

Tuesday Jan 9 is travel day.  Still snowing hard - got about 5 feet in five days and mountain did open. Ugh.  Got in a taxi to a random bus stop, where a bus actually came to take us to otaru and trains are running.  Called an audible and rode bus all the way to sapporo through steady snow through the mountains, and sapporo traffic.  Then train to airport and "free" (from yesterday's cancelation, despite Roger's assurances that it wouldn't happen) flight to kyoto.  Slippers at airport security in the most fun airport we've ever seen. All kyoto and Lotte Arai hotels supposedly canceled with no fee. A miracle. Stayed at airport hotel in kansai - kyoto here we come.  Most amazing food mall (stores, restaurants, dessert- maybe 100 places) INSIDE sapporo airport with free samples (wine too) and great sushi dinner. Unbelievable. 

Is it really a ski trip if we're not skiing?  Got the requisite 4 ski days in, now we're touring kyoto/kobe/nara for 4 days.  Great walking city!  After easy train ride, walked to the Higashi Hongan-ji Temple, the nishiki market, then a guruwalks tour through east gion, chion-in temple and up to Kiyomizu-dera temple area.  Dinner on street at toke ebisu festival, then some drinks along pontocho Sakaba.  A good full day, no incidents. 

Day 2 in featured a walk up Mt inari going through 10,000 gates to a variety of Buddhist shrines.  Crowded at bottom but thinned out the higher we went. Walked back via small residential streets to do some shopping, with a stop at local udon shop.  Dinner at Taroya Kyoto Home Cuisine up near nishiki.  25,000 steps again.  Coolest part of the day - automated underground bike garage!  https://youtu.be/uM0i12wdmHU

Day 3 of touring - kobe.  Took 140 kmh train to kobe (9 trains every hour, 40 miles away) and walked a certified 'great runs' route along port, by the earthquake memorial and to very chi-chi Vague "art" gallery (a fink choice).  This is definitely no longer a ski trip.  Kobe very different than kyoto - taller, glassier and a European influence.  After gyoza lunch (only one thing on menu) rode the gondola up kobe nunobiki (mountain overlooking ocean) to beautiful gardens, but sadly without skis so we hiked down.  Like I said.  Another great and inexpensive dinner at Nappa after sake happy hour, and another 25,000 steps.

Last full day, in nara-another very different town with many sacred Buddhist sites, including biggest bronze Buddha in the world at todaji.  Also saw temples of goryo and kofukoji, and cool lattice houses (including inside a couple, one with beautiful interior garden) in naramachi neighborhood.  Great shopping in small stores, with nice presentation and grateful shopkeeers. Deer infestation in the town-maybe cause they sell deer crackers for tourists to feed them???  Easy train ride again - 3 different speed options (35, 45 or 60 min) at different class/price tiers.  Fink on his way home so found a restaurant on our own - amazing. 

Departure day for me, couple last stops in kyoto at bamboo forest and kinkakuji golden temple.  Easy transport as always, well since kuchan.  Bullet train to Tokyo felt like the future.  Continuous acceleration to 170+ mph.  Bonus second Sunday tomorrow at Waikiki Beach.  Fink home with minor delay, Mark headed off to japanese alps near Lotte to check them out - see below for bonus post.  Overall great trip!

 

Sunday, January 14.

Said goodbye to Frankel first thing in the morning for the final leg of my adventure -- the second part of the 'ski' portion of the trip. Decided to forego the westernized & fancy Lotte Arai, headed instead to the more local MyokoKogen area. The train trip was spectacular -- fantastic views, with Lake Biwa (Japan's largest lake) on one side and mountains on the other. The bullet train was a treat, and a bucket list item. The final 1/2 hr. leg of the journey was on a local mountainside train, a classic with a little whistle and great views of the snowy forest and mountains. Accomms at Kufukan, a very traditional Ryokan (nicer rooms than the one in Niseko) with a great vibe and a nice onsen. $210 for three nights, including breakfast! Got there too late to ski, but went on a nice run exploring the town & snowy side roads. Only 3-4 restaurants in the area. Dinner was at a local noodle shop.

Monday, January 15.

Awoke to snow and fresh powder! Kufukan supplies a free, convenient shuttle to the four local ski areas. Went with the manager's recommendation and skied at Mt. Suginohara. It's the highest and steepest of the bunch. Some nice turns in fresh snow all day, although there aren't too many steeps or woods. Also, only a few ungroomed trails, though Sugi does a better job than Kanko at leaving some room on the side, so was happy. Runs are quite long -- there's a cruiser that goes for 8.5 km. Overall a really nice day. Very low key place.

Had an interesting experience at dinner. As I was on my way to another solo meal at the the noodle place, I happened upon a car stuck in the snow. These two guys had been having trouble with their car all day. Tried to help push them, we weren't getting anywhere, then two local residents appeared out of nowhere with a shovel and helped out. Befriended the guys with the car, and joined them for dinner at the noodle place. They're two friends who live in Hong Kong and have been taking Japan ski trips for ten years. They both worked for U.S. banks at some point and speak excellent English. Enjoyable dinner with them, evening ended with an exchange of WhatsApp and they've already pinged me on LinkedIn.

Tuesday, January 16.

Still snowing. At least 8-10 inches overnight. Skied at Akakura Kanko, one of the others recommended in the area. This place has been around since 1937. There's a hotel mid-mountain that looks like a mini Mt. Washington Hotel. Didn't like the skiing here as much -- nearly everything groomed (a pity with all the fresh snow!), and not very challenging. Still, had some lovely runs in broken powder. It snowed hard all day, and the winds were fierce, closing the Gondola in the afternoon. There is a ton of snow in the MyokoKogen area -- 5+ feet of settled snow on the ground in town, and giant snow banks. Dinner was another adventure -- all the local restaurants were closed that night, save the local sushi place which has two tables -- and was full. But the kind folks at Kufukan made me a nice little noodle dish.

Wednesday, January 17.

A bluebird day! Nice to be able to see the surrounding mountains after two full days of snow. Skied at Sugi again, as I had to return my rental skis. Some lovely, soft turns first thing, plus a little untracked off the top mountain lift which had been closed yesterday. Snow was great until about 11 am, then the warm sun and temps in the 40s turned things springlike. So, groomed went from foe to friend, as things got heavy. Some wonderful, sunny runs with great views of the surrounding mountains. Shuttle picked me up at 2pm, and I was Onsened and on the 15:09 from Myokokogen Station bound for Osaka.

A couple of side notes: Loved the local feel of the skiing here, and there was lots of snow. Exactly the experience I was hoping for. The terrain isn't up to the major places in N. America -- not very challenging, and they tend to over groom. I did hear that Lotte Arai can be great -- lots of steeps off the top, and great above tree line skiing. There is a shuttle bus to get there, buy it's far and expensive. Or you have to stay at the posh resort. I had wanted to try a day there, but didn't go because I was told it's not good on snowy days due to visibility issues.

I also wanted to note the incredibly low cost of this portion of the trip: Accommodations, three days' lift tickets & ski rentals, three ski lunches, and three dinners. All for less than $500.

2023 - Revelstoke & Skoki

Our first trip in 3 years so Mark & I did a pre-trip to Killington the weekend before after they got an 18" storm. Was fun but the real adventure started with a travel odyssey - Mark pranked us telling us he missed Montreal connection, I was rerouted through Halifax, lost skis and then missed t-can road closure in Golden by 7 minutes so backtrack to emerald lake lodge (Beautiful! And grateful for beds!), where Mark won paper-rock-scissors so didn't have to share a bed

We woked up the next morning and finished drive to revy, rented stuff. 10.30am start even with 1st time change of day.. Such a huge mountain with varied conditions- hardpack at bottom, nice groomers off stoke amd some nicer soft bumps in the trees off ripper chair. Long, long runs - 30K of vertical, overall 6.5 on snow conditions. Finished the day with snow falling, and a taste of predicted powder (hopefully) coming tonight and over next few days. Modern condo just outside town and got pizza in a busy downtown revelstoke. Another time change (forward) for DST and early bedtime after prior night.

Day 2 had 13cm of fresh overnight, so hussled over to ripper to get some fresh tracks. Nobody there for an hour, so got some nice runs in the trees and under the chair. Just enough snow to soften and silence the snow. Pho soup for lunch again then afternoon with some sun, some fog, a hike up into north bowl for excellent powder/gully run. Another 30k of vertical and 26 miles of skiing. Dinner is steaks at airbnb watching oscars.

Monday woke up to another 19cm and dumping snow. Heavier than yesterday and with ripper delayed, headed down double-black kill the banker, which we renamed kill the fink. Frankel talked him through it, and took over the #2 spot in group skier ability. Permanently. Great deep powder runs all day, with free refills until last chair. Fun dinner at Frankel recommended (a first!) Craft Bierhaus

Tuesday is packing/frittata and urge to get on the mountain with another 10cm overnight (50cm total for the trip), and maybe some sun. Some "10" runs off ripper then we were there for Opening of lemming line and got first tracks in north bowl - an "11". A 10 day (with no ski swap by fink) and perfect culmination to resort part of the trip - each day getting better. Dinner in Golden, then slept in Lake Louise.

Part 2 of the trip (without fink) began at Wilson sports where Mark rented alpine touring gear and we met up with Amanda and Matt. Got some breakfast/sandwiches then up the gondola to head into skoki. Cold and sunny to start but clouded up going across the lake and up deception pass, where the kids got tired of waiting for the old guys. A good climb then the run into the lodge which is as cozy and friendly as I remember. Stayed in wolverine cabin. Mark, Amanda and Matt went up skoki a little, and Mark spent time figuring out the equipment. Or at least trying to. Delicious beef Bourgogne dinner, clear skies with great stars and a 9am bedtime. Skied 8 miles or so, with 1600' of climbing.

The next day, the old guys went to merlin lake, about 3 miles away with small climb. Beautiful to be alone, far from other humans, through the meadow and up to the alpine lake. Couple struggles switching equip from ski to walk / skins in the deep snow. The kids did a bigger climb to a lake near deception, then we all went up skoki and got some tight turns in skoki woods. Another gourmet (salmon) dinner. Bluebird day - my first ever at the lodge

Friday after big breakfast, skied out and got our best powder turns coming down from deception pass. Maybe 4 minutes of skiing. Skipped laps at bunker when Amanda and Matt felt the snow settling. Then down to lake louise, up the chair and back to reality. Walked across the lake and had a beer at the chateau before another Friday night dinnet at yyc and redeye home. Skoki feels like a whole other trip - will be back. And in a bit of deja vu, a stuck jet way meant I missed my flight by 7 minutes (and went through closed gate door to beg, was threatened with arrest). 10 hours in Toronto, so went to hockey hall of fame. After an extended version of a long days journey into night, Air canada is now "off the list".

2021 - Alone together during Corona

Trips have been (rarely) canceled for a variety of reasons - surgery, bad weather, disorganization (!!) but this year's trip was called on us by a microscopic virus.  Christ!  So we put our ikon passes on the shelf and all did our own thing...here are some of those tales:

Frankel - Thinking resorts would not open (didn't happen), I bought new AT backcountry gear for the season.  While no piece of equipment was as expensive as Fink's googles or helmet, gearing up for AT ain't cheap.   But you don't have to buy a lift ticket!!  Expeditions for the year included Wachusett (had to poach a run down the resort trail), Tenney (closed due to pandemic).  Surprisingly enjoyed the uphill climb more than the untracked runs on the way down - but it'd be nice if I was in better shape so that I could get more than 2 runs in a day. 
Also got resort days at Sunapee, Loon and Cannon (fun to go back, although they ruined mittersill by cutting down glades/snowmaking) - all needed to be reserved in advance, with changing in the car & pocket lunches.   Good winter in Boston so lots of local XC too.  
Missed the ski trip banter, dinners and vistas in the rockies.  Will make up for it next year. 

Lowenstein- Adventured up to NH several times to XC, downhill and snowshoe alone and with Jenn.  During Feb vacation week (which ironically happened while Utah was getting pounded AND people were interlodged for 60 straight hours) here are conclusions on skiing without the boys:

1. Jen is better looking and nicer than either Fink & Frankel (there's a photo of her in the hot tub but we'll keep this blog PG)

2. Mark's $120 helmet got used twice in 2021, while Fink's $399 helmet probably hasn't moved since January 2020 

3. Albeit it was consumed on a bedside table cleared of a lamp, cost of my steak dinner last night: $26.95 (vs the one in Whistler at $150 and that was before sides)

2020 - Kelowna: Big White, Silver Star

After uneventful travel, met up in Kelowna to check out two new resorts-big white and silver star. Forecast looked great with recent and continuing snow and moderate temperatures. Drove up to big white, Canada's family playground which boasted 7500+ acres, where we were greeted by huge snowbanks and a decent condo. Thursday brought 9cm of fresh. And zero visibility-freezing fog continually obscuring our googles. Even finks new $280 ones. Great snow but day only rated a 6, even with decent sub $10 (Canadian!) lunch. The next day started the same (with 14cm) overnight but with gem lake chair open, and clouds lifting, had a great morning amongst the snow ghosts in fresh powder. After a harrowing drive down the mountain, we swapped out our jeep for a car with real winter tires (should've seen this coming after getting stuck in the driveway in the morning) and drove to our faux castle in Vernon. No new snow at silver stat, but lots of hardpack steeps on the backside. Found some good powder in the snow covered trees in the afternoon, then spent an hour with fink thinking about his 2nd helmet of the trip, and what discount to offer mark on the first $200 one (which hurts his ears).

Day 4 was Aussie day - after which we were back in the woods, and some nice runs off comet chair. And, a first — Mark took the day to go XC-skiing. Silver Star boasts the largest groomed XC network in Canada, and the snow was lovely and soft. Of course, this wouldn’t have happened if it was a powder day or if Mark didn’t have a week upcoming at Whistler. Frankel departed for home via shuttle, while fink and mark headed onto whistler, for lots of powder, and segment 2 of Mark's sabbatical. As usual, Fink picked good restos and mark scored with accommodations. Good trip!

Coda: Fink and Mark trip. It’s not often Jon Frankel goes back to work while Fink and Mark continue to play… So here’s a summary of Part 2 of the trip. Fink and Mark drove the 5+ hours from Vernon to Whistler (actually, Pemberton, just outside Whistler, which Mark knew about having visited his daughter Jay there this past summer, where she was working at Plenty Wild Farms). A gorgeous drive, half of which they got to do daylight. The area around Kamloops is desert-like, with large ranch lands, before getting back into the mountains near Lillooet. Note: DO NOT do the drive via Lillooett in bad weather or without a decent car/tires. You won’t make it. Arrived Pemberton for a delicious 8:30 dinner at the Pony, where Mark flirted a bit with the waitress (who Fink called ‘Jenn 2’). Checking into the Pemberton Meadow Lodge at 10:30 p.m., Mark unfolded the hide-a-bed to reveal mouse droppings. Lovely. Creepy front desk guy took his time finding another room. Monday and Tuesday brought that rare combination at Whistler — good snow and decent weather/visibility. It was quite mild, bringing the usual Whistler thing of crud and mush below mid-Mountain, but Mark and Fink had a great day Monday getting some freshies in the Alpine and 7th Heaven (and were lucky enough to be among the first to ski Blackomb Glacier when it opened). Monday night was a return to the Pony restaurant in Pemby (guess why). Tuesday, Fink skied with some of his friends there for Whistler Pride Week, while Mark did a rinse and repeat of Monday, with ~10 cm of fresh. Then, Fink upscaled to the Fairmont to welcome Blaine and a $400/night hotel room (this would not happen on the Mark/Jon/Jon trip), while Mark decamped to the HI Whistler Youth Hostel, in the former Athlete’s Village from the 2010 Olympics. The $90 (Canadian) private room was surprisingly nice and clean, and the hostel boasted lots of backcountry boarders wearing wool toques and drinking craft beer. Wednesday brought 15 cm+ of fresh snow, with free refills all morning. The brooms were out. The Alpine was closed but there were some nice freshies in the woods and some great runs on Seppos off Garbanzo Chair. Whistler T-bar opened for an hour in the afternoon, allowing for some fresh tracks in Harmony Bowl. Thursday was leftovers from Wednesday for Mark, while Fink went snowshoeing with Blaine. The Alpine opened for a couple of hours, which meant some fresh in Harmony and Symphony bowls. Toward the end of the day, Mark for stuck for 45 minutes on Symphony Chair as winds exceeded 100 km/h. Friday awoke to pouring rain in the Village and a howling blizzard at mid-Mountain, with the freezing level (a key metric at Whistler) steadily creeping up. Mark got on first chair for a couple of decent runs, before ‘Goggle Malfunction’ and change to rain plus mashed potato snow that could be a season-ender made him call it a day at 11 am. That’s where the pass is worth it! Mark spent part of the afternoon at the Fairmont fitness center/jacuzzi courtesy of Fink’s extra key. Friday night brought another ski trip record (on top of Fink’s $500 helmet/goggle combination, $400 hotel room, and $200 snowshoeing expedition): Most Expensive Meal Ever. Mark joined Fink, Blaine, and 6 of their Pride Week buddies at Hy’s Steakhouse, whose main objective apparently is to have the entree prices match the walk-up rate of a lift ticket. Saturday was a beautiful drive on the Sea-to-Sky highway into Vancouver. Fink and Blaine had a quick visit with Jay and got to meet Mia at their 'Berkeley-on-Cambie' place across from Queen E Park. Dad took daughter and GF for a great meal at Locust on Main, where dinner for 3 plus drinks, tax, and tip, incidentally, cost less than the price of ONE entree at Hy’s. Finally, hewing to the Frankel maxim of ‘one good trip…one bad trip’, Mark’s red-eye flight home turned into a bit of an odyssey. Note: Mark’s maxim of ‘avoid New York Airports’ is now being extended to 'Avoid Customs at Pearson'). But he did get some in time to watch the Super Bowl with Jenn and the in-laws.

2019 - Big Sky

It has been 23 years since our last trip to Montana. We thought it might have been 15, but as usual, we tend to greatly underestimate how long ago things happened. We remembered the thermal vandalism, the antelope puking but not much else. And the mountain has expanded to 5800 acres - supposedly biggest in north america. We arrived in bozeman after 3 feet of snow over the prior 7 days, to find ourselves car-less with fink stuck in denver and our hotwire reservation unable to be changed. Fink did arrive, we got a crappy 2-wheel drive Chevy, which only made it up to our condo about 60% of the time, and we were off to ski.

First day was sunny with lots of powder, much of it untracked off southern comfort lift. We got a tour of the mountain from Mike, highlighted by runs off the Dakota chair, finding untracked powder without hiking late in the day. The next day it snowed all day - around 6" and found lots of fresh snow off the old lone moose triple. Day 3 in the morning we spent in the powdery woods off the six shooter lift, then some nice runs off challenger with our new ski bunny friend (fink). Day 4 was a mix of sun, some remaining good snow and some windblown eastern-style skiing. Never did make it up the tram as we didn't want to wait an hour+. Lowlight of food was the brewpub with the clueless waiter, and menu with nothing available. New bar for trips- separate bathrooms for all?

2018 - Jackson Hole

Jackson is probably the definitive skiers mountain.  4000+ ft of vertical, all steep.  Forecast for the trip was good with snow falling lightly and "pretty much" most of the trip, 21" in total, making each day better than the previous one.  Skied hard all three days, from first tram to last gondy, 28,000-29,000 vertical each day.  

The first day, there was lots of crust as it had been sunny before we arrived but with the snowfall we had a nice dust-on-crust afternoon.  Spent much of day 2 doing laps off the new Teton lift - a high speed lift accessing areas that previously required a hike.  Great tree skiing.  Also did a run in the hobacks, which was good at the top,  but crusty at the bottom.  Day 3 we had some nice untracked powder off apresvous and more great runs with rented fat skis off Teton. Tried to get to hobacks, but got shut out of the last tram run.


Best meal of the trip was at 'the kitchen' - a fink foodie place, and our 1970s era condo was close to the base, although it took us 3 days to figure out the right path (see picture) so we could ski home.  Frittata on the last day before heading home. Jackson's great - there should be an easier way to get out of here without losing a ski day.  Rumors of non-stop Boston flights are great, or perhaps driving to slc for a redeye.  And renting a car at airport  (hertz), not alamo/national.  Not sure that would solve the usual "Where's Mark's skis" problem though....