Consensus among the group is that with a few less turns and less lollygagging around, all 11 could have been skied in regular operational daylight hours — roughly 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which is Nordic Valley's day-pass closing time. As it turned out, the only resort we skied on a nighttime pass was the last — Powder Mountain.

The seed for this adventure was planted when I read a story in the Denver Post over Thanksgiving by a fellow ski writer who skied eight resorts in roughly 10 hours, hitting two before lifts opened.

Accessibility and, of course, snow, have long been among Utah's greatest attractions for skiers and snowboarders.

There are six areas offered on the one-day Ski Utah Interconnect. From downtown Salt Lake City there are seven resorts within roughly 30 minutes and four more within less than an hour.

I suggested several possible options, including the Interconnect plus one — The Canyons — to Rafferty and eight with the Interconnect, plus Sundance and The Canyons. The Interconnect starts at Deer Valley and includes Park City Mountain Resort, Solitude, Brighton, Alta and Snowbird.

He suggested the 11 resorts and plotted a projected time line.

"It was," he said without hesitation, "very doable."

And so it went:

7 a.m. — The group of five, with Adam Barker as our designated driver, left Park City via the back road to U-40. The day started out with high clouds and cool but not cold temperatures.

7:56 a.m. — Four minutes ahead of schedule we followed the ski patrol for their morning duties up Ray's lift, guided by mountain operations director Jerry Warren.

It was a perfect way to start . . . a corduroy-smooth run accented by a soft reflection of the sun off Mount Timpanogos. We stopped once to take in the sights, spent a moment consuming the view and then pointed the skis downhill.

8:19 — We left, retracing our route, one minute ahead of our timetable, back past Deer Creek, around Heber and pulled into Deer Valley's Mayflower gondola across from Jordanelle Reservoir.

8:55 a.m. — We boarded the gondola, along with a dozen other skiers, as the resort officially opened.

The run here was one of our shortest — 640 vertical feet — only because the drop-off point that accesses other lifts is just above the Snow Park Lodge, our second pickup point.

This run was, however, one of our most interesting. Crossing the lower run above the lodge was a young moose, obviously frightened by the passing traffic and certainly confused. Naturally, we gave the animal a wide berth.

9:10 a.m. — Stepped out of the bindings and headed for the van and the ride to Park City Mountain Resort.