Day 93: Memorial Day holiday weekend powder
If you weren't there to experience it yourself today -- and precious few were -- you never would believe how good it was. We picked up a few more inches overnight and into this morning with storm totals now at 6". It was only 39ºF in the Salt Lake Valley at 7 a.m. and it's only five or six degrees warmer than that now. The rain/snow line at A Gate was incredibly low for any time of year much less at the end of May. Driving up was beautiful with the new snow on the green leaves.
The weather wasn't so beautiful today, however, with thick fog at times, snow falling in the morning and a stiff breeze that started up around 11 a.m. It was the same Four Amigos as yesterday plus friend Steve on a snowboard. Up until around 11 a.m. I don't think there could have been 500 people on the mountain, and it was probably much less than that but it's hard to get a good estimate when people are so spread out. We got absolute first tracks down through Puckerbrush with no competition at all. Cutting out across Little Cloud Bowl and the top of Regulator Johnson there was no one else even to be seen. The snow was perfectly even, perfectly consistent and we weren't bottoming out at all.
I mean, seriously...how often do you get a "powder beard" on Memorial Day Weekend?
What made it amazing was how consistent and even the new snowfall was. No drifts, no thin spots and no tracks anywhere.
We were all over the place today, including a run into Alta in which some miscommunication resulted in Steve riding much lower than he should have and having to posthole through knee deep snow back up to the top of the Wildcat chair. I don't get the chance to ski with people on snowboards that often and today's experience reminded me just how difficult it is to maintain a high traverse on a board, especially when the traverse isn't yet well established -- or established at all. Steve, though, was a real trooper.
Hyena Ridge was amazingly good and untracked well after 11 a.m. We got first tracks down Hourglass at mid-morning. Even Jaws had yet to be skied at noon! You just had to avoid areas affected by earlier wet slides or choked by snowcat debris, for those garden gnomes were difficult to see in the flat light and you didn't really want to hit one of those refrigerator-sized chunks at 30 mph.
A few more folks showed up around 11 a.m. but it was still empty -- as Bobby put it, at least there were people on the chairs now. But with that extra shot of people came a strong wind that closed Mineral Basin Express shortly before noon. Bobby, Steve and Jon stayed up on Little Cloud as there was now no longer a way to reach that lift from the base area. Skidog and I, however, had rubber legs and called it a day just past noon by deflowering the still untracked Jaws. What was shocking is that we could actually ski down the Upper Cirque ridgeline from Great Scott to Jaws and beyond without hitting any rocks or thin spots, something that can't ever be accomplished most winters.
Skidog reportedly shot a couple of action pics of Bobby to be uploaded here later, but it wasn't a good day for taking photos. We bumped into mbaydala too, but he was with his own crew and I don't know if they were shooting. We'll be back tomorrow after another shot of snow in the forecast for tonight into tomorrow.
If you weren't there to experience it yourself today -- and precious few were -- you never would believe how good it was. We picked up a few more inches overnight and into this morning with storm totals now at 6". It was only 39ºF in the Salt Lake Valley at 7 a.m. and it's only five or six degrees warmer than that now. The rain/snow line at A Gate was incredibly low for any time of year much less at the end of May. Driving up was beautiful with the new snow on the green leaves.
The weather wasn't so beautiful today, however, with thick fog at times, snow falling in the morning and a stiff breeze that started up around 11 a.m. It was the same Four Amigos as yesterday plus friend Steve on a snowboard. Up until around 11 a.m. I don't think there could have been 500 people on the mountain, and it was probably much less than that but it's hard to get a good estimate when people are so spread out. We got absolute first tracks down through Puckerbrush with no competition at all. Cutting out across Little Cloud Bowl and the top of Regulator Johnson there was no one else even to be seen. The snow was perfectly even, perfectly consistent and we weren't bottoming out at all.
I mean, seriously...how often do you get a "powder beard" on Memorial Day Weekend?
What made it amazing was how consistent and even the new snowfall was. No drifts, no thin spots and no tracks anywhere.
We were all over the place today, including a run into Alta in which some miscommunication resulted in Steve riding much lower than he should have and having to posthole through knee deep snow back up to the top of the Wildcat chair. I don't get the chance to ski with people on snowboards that often and today's experience reminded me just how difficult it is to maintain a high traverse on a board, especially when the traverse isn't yet well established -- or established at all. Steve, though, was a real trooper.
Hyena Ridge was amazingly good and untracked well after 11 a.m. We got first tracks down Hourglass at mid-morning. Even Jaws had yet to be skied at noon! You just had to avoid areas affected by earlier wet slides or choked by snowcat debris, for those garden gnomes were difficult to see in the flat light and you didn't really want to hit one of those refrigerator-sized chunks at 30 mph.
A few more folks showed up around 11 a.m. but it was still empty -- as Bobby put it, at least there were people on the chairs now. But with that extra shot of people came a strong wind that closed Mineral Basin Express shortly before noon. Bobby, Steve and Jon stayed up on Little Cloud as there was now no longer a way to reach that lift from the base area. Skidog and I, however, had rubber legs and called it a day just past noon by deflowering the still untracked Jaws. What was shocking is that we could actually ski down the Upper Cirque ridgeline from Great Scott to Jaws and beyond without hitting any rocks or thin spots, something that can't ever be accomplished most winters.
Skidog reportedly shot a couple of action pics of Bobby to be uploaded here later, but it wasn't a good day for taking photos. We bumped into mbaydala too, but he was with his own crew and I don't know if they were shooting. We'll be back tomorrow after another shot of snow in the forecast for tonight into tomorrow.
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