Snowbird, UT 4/16/2013

Day 65: It just keeps getting better and better.

It snowed another inch overnight and five inches during the day today, bringing storm totals to 17" of surprisingly dry snow for this time of year. And it's stayed cold and cloudy, which has kept the evil Death Star from destroying the snow.

It's now at the point where the base is largely insulated on all but the steepest and most sun affected areas. And in some places it's deep. How deep? See the photos below. We went on an expedition at the end of the day for 2,000 vertical feet of untracked -- and by that I mean absolutely zero tracks besides ours. I had to set the skin track to get there and Bobby set the bootpack. We crossed no rope lines at all en route. There were no old tracks beneath and it was smooth and bottomless as could be. It was a fitting final run for Crocker's visit. And if I told you any more about where we were I'd have to kill you.

That last run would have fit right in this year at Mustang Snowcat.

We arrived at the Plaza a bit after 9AM and got up our first tram without much of a wait. With only 1 inch overnight Road to Provo remained open so we took several runs out there. First was Mark Malu, butter smooth with the untracked inch over last night's grooming. A Shireen run was more consolidated than yesterday so less bottoming out. I had switched to my Head Jimis 110 underfoot vs. 98 for the Bonafides, so perhaps that helped a bit. We did 3 runs out the Rasta traverse, with minimally tracked snow out by the ropeline.

Around 11AM we headed for the bottom for a coffee break via the Upper Cirque. This coincided with heavy snow and dense fog. Admin and Bobby dropped into Shot 11 while I repeated the Shot 12 I skied Monday afternoon. The Cirque apron was completely Braille skiing but still good with consistent powder. We found some powder off Blackjack lower down and retrieved some gear for our expected last run.

After the break the tram line was now out the building with a full maze. This seemed strange vs. Monday, which was busy at opening but never bad after 9:30AM. There are still quite a few visitors at Snowbird: a PSIA convention and some eastern spring breakers. Later lunch was a madhouse with a 45 minute wait for Forklift restaurant. It seems to me that Gadzoom and at least one more dining option like Rendezvous should be open this week. Thankfully admin later found out that Snowbird will open Gadzoom for at least this weekend.

We went up the tram, down Chamonix Bowl into Mineral Basin. Our return to the base was via Nirvana and lower South Chute, almost identical to my last run of Iron Blosam week a month ago. That run was 50F and in corn; this one was in a foot of fresh with only occasional bottoming out. We met Amy and had lunch at General Grits rather than spend an hour or more anywhere else. After lunch we had our final adventure which admin has illustrated so well above.

Today was 17,600 vertical, 9K of powder. The 3-day trip was 69K and 30K of powder, well worth the last minute plane ticket.

PURE as little cottonwood canyon can make it any month of the year !!!