Given my injury situation (see Senior Ripper…Ripped): My physical activities are taking much less of my time; I have more time for work (is that a good thing?); I have more time to write blog posts; and I have more time for my non-active passions, including, among other things… COFFEE!!! As many of you know, I’m a bit of a coffee snob. I look at roast dates before I buy a bag of beans, I’m very particular about brewing techniques, and I will never reheat coffee! I’ve even been known to roast my own. But, as it turns out, we live in a coffee mecca. There are fully four local…

Let’s be honest, everyone loves French Fries but most of us try not to eat them too often for health reasons. A casual conversation on a chair lift about the best fries in the Wasatch Mountains gave me license to explore these delectable treats to find out if they should be in a Senior Ripper’s diet. A bit of history first: the French claim the first “pommes frites” were served beside the Pont Neuf Bridge in 1789. Americans were introduced to them in 1802 when Thomas Jefferson served them in the White House. The Belgians lay claim to eating the most “frites” per capita. Now back to the heart of…

This post was supposed to be about a wonderful Martin Luther King weekend spent skiing some amazing venues with great friends, but alas, it was not to be. Last weekend, most of the original “Rippers” returned to the scene of our genesis, Powder Mountain, to ski with guides in one of the prettiest areas of Utah. It was a gorgeous, bluebird day, great snow, great guides, empty slopes. A great time was had by all. The next day we had an early start at Snowbird, where we had reserved a snow cat to take us into the backcountry for deep powder skiing. Again, there was nothing but blue sky, deep,…

This is a short post about one of our favorite weather conditions: snow. It is, after all, a prime reason for our being in Park City. We love to ski, so we cheer the “worst” forecasts. And this ski season, so far, has been, to use an overused word, EPIC! Our first measurable snow this season was on October 20. It was enough for us to take a short cross-country ski at one of our local parks. Things went dry for about a month, and then the onslaught began. Our first day at the resort was November 22, and the snow basically hasn’t stopped! Conditions have gotten better and better…