Wednesday at Snowbird was very quiet. Everyone knew the really warm weather would start then, thus Tuesday was a big day for most of us and many people took Wednesday off. My legs were having the midweek slump I've usually had sometime since I've been at Iron Blosam for the whole week. Adam and several of the younger set went over to Alta, skied 17K over there including a hike up Baldy to Main Chute for 4 of them. Main was open for the first time since Friday night's storm, so very soft.
Liz and I were a bit late getting put to the plaza, so just missed Dominic and Stefan. We reached the top not much before 11AM and decided to ski Mineral Basin for awhile. We timed the snow well for dropping off Path to Paradise before the guntower and a Baldy run to Lower Chamonix. We hit High Stakes about right too, though the gully under the Mineral Basin chair was a bit past its prime when we got lower on that run. Finally we skied next to the rocks by Hillary step, then traversed right through Bookends Bowl so Liz could see the terrain out there. We descended through Richie's Run, where the shady skier's right was still packed powder and the left was just starting to soften.
Heading down to lunch I thought I could get Liz through the widest Shot 12 in Upper Cirque around 1PM. She told me to lead the way, looked it over for awhile and bailed out. She did not find her way to mid-Cirque and thus had an interesting(?) west side descent (crunchy on top, decent corn lower down) to the top of Big Emma. I went down to Rendezvous for lunch, met BobbyD and Colin's group there. Liz arrived about 1:45PM just as they were leaving.
After lunch we skied Little Cloud, sampling the trees either side of the Rasta Chutes for remaining soft snow. We finished the day with the Zen Traverse on Baldy to Eye of the Needle.
Thursday was the hottest day, but we were all out there with more energy than Wednesday. Another huge group went up the tram. By now I had figured out how to get Liz into the Upper Cirque, traversing across Shot 13 into Shot 12.
No problem skiing it once she got in there.
Based upon rave reviews from Adam the night before, Ben, Stefan and I decided to hike up from Baldy/Sugarloaf and ski Main Chute at noon. We same 3 had done this in 2007. I'm skiing more often now so the hike took 28 minutes vs. 34 then and 45 my first time in 1990. Lots of Baldy hikers today:
Ben and Stefan up top:
Silver Fox, Cirque and view down the canyon:
A very intimidating (and closed) Little Chute with below average snowpack:
Ben ready to film us first:
View down Main from the top:
Upper half was very soft and skied much easier than in 2007. I stopped midway for pics, Ben in upper section:
At the middle narrowing snow is more scraped off, so an abrupt speed check there:
Ben in lower section:
Stefan:
Looking back up Main from the exit:
Snow in Harold's/Tombstone was still very nice too.
It was now 1PM, so we took the long traverse back to Snowbird to meet the rest of the group for lunch. They were at mid-Gad, so Stefan and I took a tram and Regulator to meet them. Where did Ed and company want to ski right after lunch? Tigertail of course.
Some of the snow was sloppy, but the lower section was still shaded and steep enough to be mostly packed powder.
Our younger group decided to meet on Mach Schnell at 3:30 with some drinks and music. Bob, Stefan and I slogged out the Ho Chi Minh Trail, removing skis at P-Tex point like last year, and arrived first at 3:32.
All of our younger group wanted to be part of this so Adam, Ben and Eddie guided the less experienced more slowly. At P-Tex Point Andrew lost his snowboard and it ran down the west side 200 feet or so. Adam gave him poles to walk down to it, and Andrew was then able to ride down Wilbere bowl OK.
Meanwhile no less than 19 of our Iron Blosam group gathered on top of Mach Schnell.
Coincidentally, before too long Amy and Colin's group arrived.
They left after 10 minutes or so.
Patrol sweep arrived at 4:35PM
So we headed down.
Liz had taken a clinic from 1:30 - 4PM and was back in the room. I figured it wouldn't be too hard to spot 19 people skiing Mach Schnell at 4:45PM, so she took pics from our balcony. Here are some of us just above Rothman's. Note the inverted skier.
All in all a memorable day, capped by a steak dinner and some of our best wines.
Liz and I were a bit late getting put to the plaza, so just missed Dominic and Stefan. We reached the top not much before 11AM and decided to ski Mineral Basin for awhile. We timed the snow well for dropping off Path to Paradise before the guntower and a Baldy run to Lower Chamonix. We hit High Stakes about right too, though the gully under the Mineral Basin chair was a bit past its prime when we got lower on that run. Finally we skied next to the rocks by Hillary step, then traversed right through Bookends Bowl so Liz could see the terrain out there. We descended through Richie's Run, where the shady skier's right was still packed powder and the left was just starting to soften.
Heading down to lunch I thought I could get Liz through the widest Shot 12 in Upper Cirque around 1PM. She told me to lead the way, looked it over for awhile and bailed out. She did not find her way to mid-Cirque and thus had an interesting(?) west side descent (crunchy on top, decent corn lower down) to the top of Big Emma. I went down to Rendezvous for lunch, met BobbyD and Colin's group there. Liz arrived about 1:45PM just as they were leaving.
After lunch we skied Little Cloud, sampling the trees either side of the Rasta Chutes for remaining soft snow. We finished the day with the Zen Traverse on Baldy to Eye of the Needle.
Thursday was the hottest day, but we were all out there with more energy than Wednesday. Another huge group went up the tram. By now I had figured out how to get Liz into the Upper Cirque, traversing across Shot 13 into Shot 12.
No problem skiing it once she got in there.
Based upon rave reviews from Adam the night before, Ben, Stefan and I decided to hike up from Baldy/Sugarloaf and ski Main Chute at noon. We same 3 had done this in 2007. I'm skiing more often now so the hike took 28 minutes vs. 34 then and 45 my first time in 1990. Lots of Baldy hikers today:
Ben and Stefan up top:
Silver Fox, Cirque and view down the canyon:
A very intimidating (and closed) Little Chute with below average snowpack:
Ben ready to film us first:
View down Main from the top:
Upper half was very soft and skied much easier than in 2007. I stopped midway for pics, Ben in upper section:
At the middle narrowing snow is more scraped off, so an abrupt speed check there:
Ben in lower section:
Stefan:
Looking back up Main from the exit:
Snow in Harold's/Tombstone was still very nice too.
It was now 1PM, so we took the long traverse back to Snowbird to meet the rest of the group for lunch. They were at mid-Gad, so Stefan and I took a tram and Regulator to meet them. Where did Ed and company want to ski right after lunch? Tigertail of course.
Some of the snow was sloppy, but the lower section was still shaded and steep enough to be mostly packed powder.
Our younger group decided to meet on Mach Schnell at 3:30 with some drinks and music. Bob, Stefan and I slogged out the Ho Chi Minh Trail, removing skis at P-Tex point like last year, and arrived first at 3:32.
All of our younger group wanted to be part of this so Adam, Ben and Eddie guided the less experienced more slowly. At P-Tex Point Andrew lost his snowboard and it ran down the west side 200 feet or so. Adam gave him poles to walk down to it, and Andrew was then able to ride down Wilbere bowl OK.
Meanwhile no less than 19 of our Iron Blosam group gathered on top of Mach Schnell.
Coincidentally, before too long Amy and Colin's group arrived.
They left after 10 minutes or so.
Patrol sweep arrived at 4:35PM
So we headed down.
Liz had taken a clinic from 1:30 - 4PM and was back in the room. I figured it wouldn't be too hard to spot 19 people skiing Mach Schnell at 4:45PM, so she took pics from our balcony. Here are some of us just above Rothman's. Note the inverted skier.
All in all a memorable day, capped by a steak dinner and some of our best wines.
