Day 35: Hurry up and wait.
Mrs. Admin decided that she was going to ski today. She's usually a late starter, but as we went to bed last night I set the alarm for 8 a.m. and indicated that I wanted to be out of the house by 9:30. That would mean skiing by 10.
In typical Mrs. Admin fashion, however, we boarded our first chair -- Crescent -- at the decidedly non-alpine start time of 12:15. :roll:
That was only after finding a parking spot, however. The lot next to First Time was full. The underground lot was full. The crowds were in sharp contrast to Alta on Saturday, which was strangely quiet for any Saturday, much less the Saturday of President's Weekend. Right as the parking attendant was set to pull up the rope to block access to one of the auxiliary lots I drove across the rope and created a parking spot out of the mud bowl on the east end. They were directing folks to shuttle-served overflow lots.
Now I hoofed uphill to the ski area and changed into my boots. Mrs. Admin put the zip tie on the lift ticket and closed it without passing it through her zipper first. :roll: Back to get another zip tie, walk uphill to Crescent and board the chair.
Thankfully the crowds weren't in the liftlines -- we never waited more than three minutes all day and most lifts were ski-on. We even managed to find a table at the Mid-Mountain Restaurant for lunch without any difficulty. Aside from clogging up Homerun, I'm not sure where all of the people were.
It was a day of blue cruising heaven. From the top of Crescent, we descended via 3-4 Load/Claimjumper/Broadway to King Con, then up King Con and down Rose Bud and Claimjumper to Silverlode. Up Silverlode, and down Homerun/Mid-Mountain Meadows to McConkeys.
After taking in the views atop McConkeys we went down Tycoon to Georgeanna and Flat Iron/Jonseys to Bonanza.
Up Bonanza, down Mid-Mountain Meadows again to lunch. Up Pioneer, and across to the other side of the ridge where we worked our way east one lift at a time: Keystone to Thaynes, Single Jack/Thaynes Canyon to Motherlode, Parley's Park to Silverlode, and Hidden Splendor to what should've been King Con via Broadway, but they'd already pulled up the closed rope at the Snow Hut, so we had to board Silverlode again, this time heading all the way down Homerun to Drift/Blanche/Heckler back to the resort base. By this time it was 4:15 and Mrs. Admin wanted to take another run, so we rode PayDay to ski a heavily trafficked PayDay run back to the truck.
Surfaces were soft packed powder everywhere, save for the steeper pitch of Parley's Park below the split with Prospector, and the aforementioned PayDay, both of which were scratchy in spots.
It was sunny all morning and into the early afternoon, when a ring around the sun gave a hint of what was to come. By 3:30, a thick overcast took over ahead of Monday night's storm, turning the light very flat. A stiff breeze blew out of the south all day, making it feel much chillier than the thermometer indicated. It was most noticeable on the ridgelines, and things got far more comfortable as soon as you dropped a couple of hundred verts.
Thursday will be the antithesis of today, as I'm guaranteed powder all day long. I'll be skiing here:
Mrs. Admin decided that she was going to ski today. She's usually a late starter, but as we went to bed last night I set the alarm for 8 a.m. and indicated that I wanted to be out of the house by 9:30. That would mean skiing by 10.
In typical Mrs. Admin fashion, however, we boarded our first chair -- Crescent -- at the decidedly non-alpine start time of 12:15. :roll:
That was only after finding a parking spot, however. The lot next to First Time was full. The underground lot was full. The crowds were in sharp contrast to Alta on Saturday, which was strangely quiet for any Saturday, much less the Saturday of President's Weekend. Right as the parking attendant was set to pull up the rope to block access to one of the auxiliary lots I drove across the rope and created a parking spot out of the mud bowl on the east end. They were directing folks to shuttle-served overflow lots.
Now I hoofed uphill to the ski area and changed into my boots. Mrs. Admin put the zip tie on the lift ticket and closed it without passing it through her zipper first. :roll: Back to get another zip tie, walk uphill to Crescent and board the chair.
Thankfully the crowds weren't in the liftlines -- we never waited more than three minutes all day and most lifts were ski-on. We even managed to find a table at the Mid-Mountain Restaurant for lunch without any difficulty. Aside from clogging up Homerun, I'm not sure where all of the people were.
It was a day of blue cruising heaven. From the top of Crescent, we descended via 3-4 Load/Claimjumper/Broadway to King Con, then up King Con and down Rose Bud and Claimjumper to Silverlode. Up Silverlode, and down Homerun/Mid-Mountain Meadows to McConkeys.
After taking in the views atop McConkeys we went down Tycoon to Georgeanna and Flat Iron/Jonseys to Bonanza.
Up Bonanza, down Mid-Mountain Meadows again to lunch. Up Pioneer, and across to the other side of the ridge where we worked our way east one lift at a time: Keystone to Thaynes, Single Jack/Thaynes Canyon to Motherlode, Parley's Park to Silverlode, and Hidden Splendor to what should've been King Con via Broadway, but they'd already pulled up the closed rope at the Snow Hut, so we had to board Silverlode again, this time heading all the way down Homerun to Drift/Blanche/Heckler back to the resort base. By this time it was 4:15 and Mrs. Admin wanted to take another run, so we rode PayDay to ski a heavily trafficked PayDay run back to the truck.
Surfaces were soft packed powder everywhere, save for the steeper pitch of Parley's Park below the split with Prospector, and the aforementioned PayDay, both of which were scratchy in spots.
It was sunny all morning and into the early afternoon, when a ring around the sun gave a hint of what was to come. By 3:30, a thick overcast took over ahead of Monday night's storm, turning the light very flat. A stiff breeze blew out of the south all day, making it feel much chillier than the thermometer indicated. It was most noticeable on the ridgelines, and things got far more comfortable as soon as you dropped a couple of hundred verts.
Thursday will be the antithesis of today, as I'm guaranteed powder all day long. I'll be skiing here:
