Days 50 & 51: The huge posse.
This weekend marks the beginning of Tony Crocker's crew's week at the Iron Blosam at Snowbird, so that in itself means a huge influx of visiting friends. But Tall John is also in town and Mira extended her stay until Saturday night, so our skiing group swelled to as many as 14 at times throughout the weekend.
On Saturday we had thick clouds and fog left over from a storm that dropped 5" of medium density snow that was just right to keep you off the base on all but the steepest of lines. Personal highlights included Keyhole and especially Albion Gully, in which we scored absolute first tracks but after a dozen of us rolled through it was completely deflowered. It was heli quality. Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder remained closed all day but some of our group caught the Backside opening as the rest of us were having our morning latte.
We ventured over to Snowbird after lunch where the thick fog was like skiing through clam chowder. The ground completely disappeared beneath the Tram, which made Great Scott even a bit more sporting than usual.
I took no pictures on Saturday as a consequence of the weather, but today was a different story.
That's my line in Ballroom this morning as it opened for the first time since Thursday and I was the fifth person through the gate.
After our morning coffee stop Bobby Danger, AmyZ and I bid TheOtherAmy and Corey, John and Skrad farewell just as Devil's Castle was getting ready to open and headed through the Keyhole at around 11:30 to join Crocker's crew at Snowbird. The sun shone brightly and temperatures rose rapidly as we boarded Gadzoom to head for the new Little Cloud lift, which was unexpectedly closed. I heard from a reasonably reliable source that both the primary and auxiliary motors failed, so we loaded Gad 2 instead and did a Tigertail run, which was still nice and fluffy with dry snow on its northerly aspects despite its lower elevation.
After lunch we bumped into mrgskier in Mineral Basin and he joined the group for a hike up to the High Baldy Traverse to enter Alta through the Armpit Gate high on Baldy Shoulder. Here we found smooth, dry, chalky lose snow that skied exceptionally well, as did West Rustler at 4pm after it had warned nicely in the afternoon sun.
It was another great weekend all the way around.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2
This weekend marks the beginning of Tony Crocker's crew's week at the Iron Blosam at Snowbird, so that in itself means a huge influx of visiting friends. But Tall John is also in town and Mira extended her stay until Saturday night, so our skiing group swelled to as many as 14 at times throughout the weekend.
On Saturday we had thick clouds and fog left over from a storm that dropped 5" of medium density snow that was just right to keep you off the base on all but the steepest of lines. Personal highlights included Keyhole and especially Albion Gully, in which we scored absolute first tracks but after a dozen of us rolled through it was completely deflowered. It was heli quality. Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder remained closed all day but some of our group caught the Backside opening as the rest of us were having our morning latte.
We ventured over to Snowbird after lunch where the thick fog was like skiing through clam chowder. The ground completely disappeared beneath the Tram, which made Great Scott even a bit more sporting than usual.
I took no pictures on Saturday as a consequence of the weather, but today was a different story.
That's my line in Ballroom this morning as it opened for the first time since Thursday and I was the fifth person through the gate.
After our morning coffee stop Bobby Danger, AmyZ and I bid TheOtherAmy and Corey, John and Skrad farewell just as Devil's Castle was getting ready to open and headed through the Keyhole at around 11:30 to join Crocker's crew at Snowbird. The sun shone brightly and temperatures rose rapidly as we boarded Gadzoom to head for the new Little Cloud lift, which was unexpectedly closed. I heard from a reasonably reliable source that both the primary and auxiliary motors failed, so we loaded Gad 2 instead and did a Tigertail run, which was still nice and fluffy with dry snow on its northerly aspects despite its lower elevation.
After lunch we bumped into mrgskier in Mineral Basin and he joined the group for a hike up to the High Baldy Traverse to enter Alta through the Armpit Gate high on Baldy Shoulder. Here we found smooth, dry, chalky lose snow that skied exceptionally well, as did West Rustler at 4pm after it had warned nicely in the afternoon sun.
It was another great weekend all the way around.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II using Tapatalk 2
