Day 101: $hitshow
If Snowbird lost money on some of their open weekend days over the past month they made up for it today in spades, and then some. The first hint was that all lots were full when I arrived and folks were parking on both sides of Little Cottonwood Canyon Road.
I somehow managed to get a decent makeshift spot on the Bypass Road, where I bumped into Skidog. He was already done and had assumed the position.
Bobby Danger and Telejon were still out there somewhere but anyone was positively impossible to find in that mess. I arrived at the Tram Plaza to find the liftline filling the maze, back around the Tram building, past Christy's to the Demo Center, then zigging back across the Plaza to the ticket window, then filing straight back onto the skier bridge. :shock: Lots of bikinis and short shorts, and a handful of rather elaborate costumes. At the same time Snowbird was hosting a holiday pancake breakfast that just added to the mess for at times it was hard to tell who was standing in the pancake line and who was waiting for the Tram. Fifty minutes later I boarded the lift.
The summit scene on Hidden Peak wasn't much better.
Most folks were sticking to the groomers, so I escaped the masses by heading to Chamonix 1, which skied remarkably well. Perfect corn even if a little dirty.
This of course unfortunately dumped me onto the Lupine Loop groomer.
Remembering the 45-60 minute liftlines for Little Cloud on July 4, 2005 this would also put me at the higher capacity Mineral Basin Express which nonetheless had a 20-minute liftline.
I'd already had enough. So had the folks I rode the lift with. Nearly everyone was downloading on the Tram and there was no way I was opting for that mess. I looped around the summit and dropped into the peaceful solitude of the Peruvian Gulch "backcountry" for my final run of the season. Right as I did so, however, of the thousands of songs stored on my phone in through my helmet came -- so help me God, I'm not kidding -- "Fourth of July" by X:
View attachment 4th Of July - X.wma (click link to play)
Spooky. Really spooky. I just kept repeating the song for the whole run. At the end of the short road below Chip's Face at little more than 8,000 feet of elevation I had to take off my skis once for about 75 feet. Other than that I was able to ski to within 100 yards of the car parked on the Bypass Road. On July 4th. Amazing.
There was a ton more snow today than there had been on July 4, 2005. It's been a really big snow year in the Wasatch followed by a cool, wet spring that preserved snow pretty much until the past week, which hung in the 90s and even broke 100 in the Salt Lake Valley. You know it's been a big snow year when the Oquirrh Mountains on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley still have snow on them into July.
I'm done. It was hard enough to get motivated to go up there to ski, although that seemed to afflict few other Utah skiers today. 101 days and I'm calling it a season. It's time to enjoy summer.
If Snowbird lost money on some of their open weekend days over the past month they made up for it today in spades, and then some. The first hint was that all lots were full when I arrived and folks were parking on both sides of Little Cottonwood Canyon Road.
I somehow managed to get a decent makeshift spot on the Bypass Road, where I bumped into Skidog. He was already done and had assumed the position.
Bobby Danger and Telejon were still out there somewhere but anyone was positively impossible to find in that mess. I arrived at the Tram Plaza to find the liftline filling the maze, back around the Tram building, past Christy's to the Demo Center, then zigging back across the Plaza to the ticket window, then filing straight back onto the skier bridge. :shock: Lots of bikinis and short shorts, and a handful of rather elaborate costumes. At the same time Snowbird was hosting a holiday pancake breakfast that just added to the mess for at times it was hard to tell who was standing in the pancake line and who was waiting for the Tram. Fifty minutes later I boarded the lift.
The summit scene on Hidden Peak wasn't much better.
Most folks were sticking to the groomers, so I escaped the masses by heading to Chamonix 1, which skied remarkably well. Perfect corn even if a little dirty.
This of course unfortunately dumped me onto the Lupine Loop groomer.
Remembering the 45-60 minute liftlines for Little Cloud on July 4, 2005 this would also put me at the higher capacity Mineral Basin Express which nonetheless had a 20-minute liftline.
I'd already had enough. So had the folks I rode the lift with. Nearly everyone was downloading on the Tram and there was no way I was opting for that mess. I looped around the summit and dropped into the peaceful solitude of the Peruvian Gulch "backcountry" for my final run of the season. Right as I did so, however, of the thousands of songs stored on my phone in through my helmet came -- so help me God, I'm not kidding -- "Fourth of July" by X:
View attachment 4th Of July - X.wma (click link to play)
Spooky. Really spooky. I just kept repeating the song for the whole run. At the end of the short road below Chip's Face at little more than 8,000 feet of elevation I had to take off my skis once for about 75 feet. Other than that I was able to ski to within 100 yards of the car parked on the Bypass Road. On July 4th. Amazing.
There was a ton more snow today than there had been on July 4, 2005. It's been a really big snow year in the Wasatch followed by a cool, wet spring that preserved snow pretty much until the past week, which hung in the 90s and even broke 100 in the Salt Lake Valley. You know it's been a big snow year when the Oquirrh Mountains on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley still have snow on them into July.
I'm done. It was hard enough to get motivated to go up there to ski, although that seemed to afflict few other Utah skiers today. 101 days and I'm calling it a season. It's time to enjoy summer.
