Alta, UT 12/21/13

[Admin]

Day 18: "There's no reason to ski early season." - Tony Crocker

Really? You be the judge.

It was a crew of 5 today: Bobby Danger, Skidog, AmyZ, TheOtherAmy and yours truly. And it rocked. Temps were in the teens, winds were light (or moderate at the ridgetops), light snow fell all day, and it wasn't crowded at all. Most controlled areas stayed closed, save for Catherine's, which we lapped three times. At some point in early afternoon Supreme closed for a bit -- I heard that it was because something slid, but I never did get the details. We had planned to venture over to Snowbird all the way to Gad 2 and back, but they closed the Sugarloaf Pass checkpoint on us along with the entire EBT.

But we all had a blast!

 

[mrgskier]

Looks awesome, Marc! Looking forward to playing in it as soon as possible.

 

[Admin]

mrgskier, get your a$$ out here now! Looking forward to seeing and skiing with you. Joining us Tuesday evening?

 

[jojo_obrien]

ahhahahahhahahahha love it........."There's no reason to ski early season." - Tony Crocker

would have loved to have joined you all......either i'm getting older or 7 hours of nonstop pow on Friday wore me out ......plus nearly breaking my leg....would put yesterday's incident in top 3 most painful skiing incidents in my life........ although some chick at the Peruvian Lodge yesterday mentioned she fractured 3 vertebrae skiing Nov 20th by hitting a large patch of rocks..........yikes......

GMD manana? curious to know when Devil's Castle and Cecret Saddle will be open....it sounded like they were bombing it on Friday.....i could be mistaken......

 

[Admin]

either i'm getting older or 7 hours of nonstop pow on Friday wore me out

Dude, just wait another 15-20 years. :roll: I plan to put the hot tub through its paces tonight.

GMD manana?

Yup. Same bat time, same bat channel.

curious to know when Devil's Castle and Cecret Saddle will be open....it sounded like they were bombing it on Friday.....i could be mistaken......

They may well have been, but if anyplace at Alta needs a boatload of snow, that's it. You won't see that opening before 2014.

 

[Bobby Danger]

DAY..24... STELLAR ..... there's no reason for early season ...... . looking forward to tom.

 

[Tony Crocker]

There's no reason to ski early season." - Tony Crocker

WTF??? Here's my report from Dec. 18-20 last year: viewtopic.php?t=10413 All 3 days of that were amazing and it wasn't too shabby 2 weeks earlier Dec. 4-8: viewtopic.php?t=10384

What I have said is that if you have to buy an airplane ticket a month ahead, committing to a specific location in early season can be a crapshoot. If you bought that plane ticket to ski in the Sierra this December instead of last year, you would not be too happy about it now. Pre-Christmas December skiing within drive distance once you know there's snow is a completely different animal, often epic due to lack of competition as illustrated in this report.

Early season will nearly always be good somewhere, but you don't know where in advance. Alta sounds great now, but Wolf Creek and Targhee got to where Alta is now earlier this season.

 

[Marc_C]

At some point in early afternoon Supreme closed for a bit -- I heard that it was because something slid, but I never did get the details.

Supreme closed for the day at about 1:15-ish. A natural slide released above the Big Dipper road (the easiest groomer off of Supreme) in the vicinity of the East Castle gate & Evergreen. From our distant vantage point, it looked like the crown was about 2 feet - all new snow, failing on the interface with the old, about 100' wide, and went across the road. Patrol was there immediately with a pair of avi dogs to ensure no one was buried.
The loud bombing you heard the rest of the afternoon was ASP trying to stabilize that entire area.

 

[Admin]

There's no reason to ski early season." - Tony Crocker

WTF??? Here's my report from Dec. 18-20 last year: viewtopic.php?t=10413 All 3 days of that were amazing and it wasn't too shabby 2 weeks earlier Dec. 4-8: viewtopic.php?t=10384

But, 44.231% of our snow fell before Nov. 1!

"There's no reason to ski early season." - Tony Crocker

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Bobby Danger]

tony it's not about personally jabbing at you - we only want you here with us to enjoy the moment with us - and not taking any excuse as being acceptable for not being here . please don't take any of this the wrong way it's all really about revelling in the moment with us . yesterday was as true a classic an alta day as it gets !!

 

[gpaulski]

Bobby, you dissapoint, thought you were joining Marc_c in a good ole bash, and not against me for a change!!! Best!

 

[Tony Crocker]

It's an option to detour to SLC a day on the way to Aspen next weekend, but on the busiest weekend of the season I'm leaning toward a "q" tour of the obscure unless there's a lot of new snow to lure me elsewhere.

But, 44.231% of our snow fell before Nov. 1!

Only about 20% now, less relevant with each new storm.