Alta, UT 4/19/09 - Closing Day

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Day 58: What closing day should be.

Good weather, good friends, good times. The last couple of seasons had ended on cold, snowy, stormy days. This season, however, revealed cloudless skies, warm temperatures and the largest posse imaginable. Even The Kid forsake the closing day at Park City, where he has a pass, to buy a day ticket to join us at Alta.

Debating the advisability of closing a ski area with 170 inches of settled mid-mountain snowpack is left for another day. Today was all about good times, following the sun around to ski what had softened, people-watching a myriad of costumes, general Closing Day debauchery, and our traditional parking lot tailgate BBQ at the end of the day. I'm still stuffed from the blue cheese garlic burgers. We were actually stuck at Alta when the canyon road closed late in the day due to a slide across the road in White Pine, but it didn't matter. Even though we had all the supplies we needed we still joked about arranging our cars to spell "SOS - Send Beer" for the news helicopters that would surely fly over.

I shot a ton of footage today, and here's the video:
[skitube2]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/modules/crpVideo/pnmedia/videos/2009-04-19_Alta.flv[/skitube2]
 
I was noticeably brief last night as I needed toothpicks for my eyes when I posted this thread and I never really discussed conditions. Snow was pretty much a repeat of Saturday. You had to time it right as there haven't been enough freeze/thaw cycles to generate corn. What's up there now is what Marc_C referred to as "proto-corn". Backside at ~11:30 a.m. was quite good, and consistent. Baldy Shoulder at ~1:30 p.m. wasn't quite ready. I never did make it over to West Rustler in the afternoon, but our effort to ski back to the truck via Wildcat at ~3:00 p.m. was through knee-wrenching mank as not enough folks had skied out there. Yesterday, you really needed to stick to areas that had been heavily skied. This should change during the course of this week as things corn up a bit more, but predictions are for very light overnight freezes. Snowbird remains open daily with the Tram, Little Cloud, Chickadee, Wilbere and Mineral Basin Express spinning this week.

I'll endeavor to work on the video tonight, but in the meantime here are a few of Marc_C's stills:

Alta parking lot BBQ overview 090419.jpg


Alta parking lot BBQ band 090419.jpg


Alta parking lot BBQ elvis 090419.jpg


Alta parking lot BBQ vanroof 090419.jpg
 
You didn't check out the top of Highboy for festivities up there?

You had to time it right as there haven't been enough freeze/thaw cycles to generate corn.....Yesterday, you really needed to stick to areas that had been heavily skied.
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Yes, that's why Mammoth does a ton of grooming the second day after a spring dump. This time of year can give you a "Richard perspective" on AltaBird. The enjoyable skiing off-trail is temporarily limited until the "knee-wrenching mank" settles naturally or enough sacrificial lambs pack it down.
 
Tony Crocker":3bhjwsuv said:
You didn't check out the top of Highboy for festivities up there?
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Thought about it. But between the lift line on Collins, friends coming up from the valley, and the Collins safety switches tripping every minute (something that's been plaguing that lift this spring), we instead opted for several Wildcat runs and called it a season.

Also, frankly, there's nothing really to check out on top of Highboy. The festivities are the same, year after year. Only real difference is the number of people up there - a linear function of the weather - and how drunk people get.

Now, on to the remaining 1/4 of the season!
 
the lift line on Collins
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I know Supreme was closed, but what about Sugarloaf? I assume that for a first timer the scene at top of Highboy is still worth checking out, as admin did in 2005.
 
Who, exactly, was the first-timer? The Kid went up to the High Boy party for a bit, so there's your first-timer. No one else felt compelled to brave the line of folks heading up there and the numerous stop-starts on Collins that Marc_C referred to, which were presumably precipitated by tower heating and warping that Collins is so subject to on exceedingly warm days.

And we skied Sugarloaf all morning, so we had enough of that..
 
the numerous stop-starts on Collins that Marc_C referred to, which were presumably precipitated by tower heating and warping that Collins is so subject to on exceedingly warm days.
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Is this a design issue? Are there plans to fix it? Are there any other ski areas that have this problem?

Who, exactly, was the first-timer? The Kid went up to the High Boy party for a bit
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That was my point. It sounds like the High Boy closing is in that category of "something every skier should see once," but not that many are inclined to repeat.
 
Tony Crocker":1ozmz40x said:
the numerous stop-starts on Collins that Marc_C referred to, which were presumably precipitated by tower heating and warping that Collins is so subject to on exceedingly warm days.
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Is this a design issue? Are there plans to fix it? Are there any other ski areas that have this problem?
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It's not terribly rare amongst detachable chairlifts exposed to high altitude sun and high temperatures. It's just that ski areas that receive those conditions on a regular basis are somewhat rare. Ever ride Sugarloaf and notice the white towers? Now, on a foggy day in January, having white lift towers in an above-treeline area may seem counter-intuitive, but this is precisely why they're white -- to keep the temperatures lower by reflecting more of the sun's rays.

The Collins lift towers are steel colored. Whether or not they intend to paint those white, or if painting them white would make an appreciable difference on that lift, I don't know. What I do know is that on exceedingly warm, sunny days like yesterday you can anticipate the stop/start issues starting in early afternoon.

Tony Crocker":1ozmz40x said:
It sounds like the High Boy closing is in that category of "something every skier should see once," but not that many are inclined to repeat.
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Not many over 30.
 
Tony Crocker":2aujk5mc said:
It sounds like the High Boy closing is in that category of "something every skier should see once," but not that many are inclined to repeat.
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Actually, I'd have loved for the Alta portion of my season to end with the spring bumps of Highboy and would have gladly gone up and braved the crowd*, had it not been for the aforementioned line and lift issues. And before you ask, I was far too lazy to do the rope tow/Sunnyside/Sugarloaf/EBT commute, especially with chipotle-gorgonzola burgers and beer calling out to an empty stomach!

*: for those unaware, on a nice closing day, like yesterday, we're not talking a few dozen people - the crowd up top can easily be 300 or more.
 
It's not terribly rare amongst detachable chairlifts exposed to high altitude sun and high temperatures
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Not sure I've heard of this at Mammoth, with 3 detachables plus a gondola open to at least Memorial Day. Then there's Mineral Basin, in the sun all day long at any time of year. Perhaps the dogleg mid-station makes Collins more sensitive. You guys were mentioning this problem fairly early this season. I would think Alta would want to look into it sooner rather than later.
 
Tony Crocker":3tq25nie said:
Not sure I've heard of this at Mammoth
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Gee, a Mammoth comparison. I'm shocked! Sure didn't see that one coming.

Tony Crocker":3tq25nie said:
Perhaps the dogleg mid-station makes Collins more sensitive.
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It definitely makes it more complicated.

Tony Crocker":3tq25nie said:
You guys were mentioning this problem fairly early this season.
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Same lift, different issues.

Tony Crocker":3tq25nie said:
I would think Alta would want to look into it sooner rather than later.
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It's been this way for years. I'm sure that they already have. FWIW Sugarloaf used to do the same thing before they painted the towers, but it still does on really hot and sunny days.
 
Great to see what another fabulous season you had in Utah this winter. Here's a "shout out" to all the Alta crew...

My latest (and promising) tech start-up venture has kept me homebound in CT, while my financial firm has barely remained solvent. So, regretfully, I did not make it out West this year. I did manage to sneak in 12 days of skiing this year, including 7 excellent days at Smuggs in Feb. and one GLORIOUS day of powder skiing at MRG.

I may be situated physically in Connecticut at the moment, but my spirit is frequently transported to Alta and surrounding environs.

All the best to Marc and crew!
 
i feel as if i've lost a family member. knowing there are no more lift serviced tomorrows this year.
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:-({|= The Utards are still near the top of the food chain in terms of quality lift served skiing remaining. I could argue that Mammoth is on average better than Snowbird at this time of year, but half an hour from Snowbird is a whole lot better than 5 hours from Mammoth. No question I'd take Snowbird's late season over A-Basin's, Mt. Hood's or Sunshine's. I haven't read enough reports to compare Whistler. Bachelor is also on average better, but only until May 17.
 
and i have to agree with tony's preferences of the bird over many other resorts. i never spent much time there as an alta/solitude local, but the terrain and layout of the place is quite amazing. craig and i have been following the sun the past two days and helped patrol open some gates via early tram this morning. baldy bowl/birthday chutes/white pine exit were quite good today. tomorrow a dusk patrol for newly falling snow is in order in upper bcc. after that chasing untracked all over he bc through wednesday. back home? i hit my 100th day b4 coming out here for 8 ski days and mt washington/sugarloaf have been consistently quite amazing and alot less fickle than this very non-maritime snowpack out here. nice to be back though.

rog
 
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