Saturday was a world record day at Utah’s Snowbird resort.  With so many people in the world, it’s a lot harder today to obtain a title in the  Guinness Book of World Records, but Snowbird did it on December 7, when 25 professional athletes showed up to sign autographs. The 25 big mountain skiers gave Snowbird the record for the largest autograph signing by professional athletes. The previous record was 18 athletes on some other day in some other place. If powder was involved at that time, it was not the fluffy stuff on the slopes.

The skiers, who included such well known names as Daron Rahlves (Olympic skier, ski cross-er and dirt biker), big mountain skiers Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Caroline Gleich and more, actually took runs with fans who showed up for autographs. Ordinary skier John Matts said, “I can’t believe who I got to ski with. This is something I’ll remember forever!” Many folks who filled the ‘Bird’s huge parking lot just came to meet their heroes, and didn’t even take advantage of the incredible skiing available in Utah’s Cottonwood Canyons.

The photo above shows Rahlves, with Dash Longe on his right and ‘thumbs up’  Ian McIntosh on his left, just around tram closing time. The long line of athletes signing autographs were bomped by two DJ’s from Jamaica, who were obviously amazed by the crowd and the snow.

More than a hundred people crowded the Plaza’s Forklift restaurant to get one of the large glossy free posters signed by famous skiers. The event was part of POWDER magazine’s annual video awards celebration. People were still arriving after the lifts closed, and the party atmosphere continued to grow.

But Snowbird wasn’t the only Cottonwood Canyons resort to be gifted with white gold from the sky on Saturday. Further up Little Cottonwood, all of Alta’s lifts were opened, and Alta-holics were enjoying the fluffy slopes, where dry powdery snow continued to fall throughout the day. In Big Cottonwood, Brighton provided continuous refreshing of powder lines through the trees. Folks made their own trails, only to have them covered up by more freshies as the day went on. Even Solitude rejoiced at no longer having to fib about their snowfall totals, because the powder fell for them as well.

Saturday was glorious in the Cottonwoods, but Sunday will be even better. More than a foot of freshies dumped before 10 pm, and who knows how much more will accumulate before the lifts open. Sunday is also the first day for the beginning of public transportation, i.e. the Canyon bus; which begins its slow, turgid transport of eager skiers and snowboarders up to the slopes from now until April of 2014.

If you can’t make it to some human-made church building on Sunday, attend the one created by the Creator. As soon as your feet hit the snowy shower of powder, you’ll get religion.