Day 71: Who needs a little purple pill with Cinco de Mayo powder?
Yeah, we knew it snowed, but we'd expected a few inches of heavy cream cheese. What we got instead was nearly two feet of 7% or 8% dreamy May powder!
It was barely flurrying as I met up with Bob Dangerous at the Bypass Road at 8:30, figuring to catch first tram at 9, but we watched a loaded cabin head up the hill as we poled down to Snowbird Center. :x No matter, the place was empty until noon, and there was plenty to go around. It was just the two of us -- Marc_C went out in the desert with his wife, Sam was likely working, and Skidog was having a refrigerator delivered :lol: . The Kid, a typical teenager, slept in. I have no clue what Amy, Tele Jon or Pat's excuses were.
Man, was it cold on Hidden Peak! If I didn't know any better I'd swear that it was February. The peak was in the clouds, and a strong northwesterly wind was blowing snow sideways. Our faces sandblasted, I couldn't wait to get off the ridgeline, and sure enough things calmed down only a few hundred feet below. The problem was that it was true braille skiing -- you couldn't see a thing and had to let feedback from your skis tell you what you were skiing across. You couldn't tell where the sky ended and the snow began. We tried a second lap out toward Old Lady's, and found the snow even more wind affected over there. It was time to move on in search of better snow.
And we found it in Nirvana. One, maybe two tracks down through there. Positively amazing. Knee deep or better. Below the Point of No Return I let those Goliaths run, and man, oh man, were they the right purchase. I don't think that I've ever enjoyed powder turns that fast, that consistent, and that reliable. By now, too, the snow had resumed in earnest. In fact, it fell at moderate rates throughout the rest of our day.
We found even more of the same in Tower 2 chute, just free-falling through the trees with abandon. We wrapped around across Dalton's to Mach Schnell, finding cut up powder there but still an amazing rush.
We headed up Gadzoom and Little Cloud to hit Lone Pine to the lower end of The Wave. We stepped down over the rocks at the top of Lone Pine, but I let them run a bit too soon and scored a core shot for my impatience, but below that it was more creamy, dreamy untracked.
Back up Gadzoom and Little Cloud again, I repeated Tower 2 -- still just as good and untracked as the first time, save for our two tracks from the first trip -- while Bob angled right into Tower 3 chute, finding only two sets of tracks over there. We regrouped at the Anderson's traverse and descended via the trees between Dalton's and Mach Schnell.
It was time for lunch, and after a hearty sandwich at the Forklift we boarded the tram again. This time, though, there was a line through half the maze. It seems that folks caught wind this morning of what was happening up there and showed up late to enjoy what was left. We headed up the hike to the High Baldy Traverse along with lots of passholders through blowing snow stinging our faces. One gust felt like it would blow me over the edge into the abyss of Chamonix Cliffs. We headed out and down via Eddie's and the trees between that and Pyramid Rock. We worked our way right above Eye of the Needle into Palm Springs, down to Chip's and back to our trucks, completely satisfied.
Nine runs, 18,310 vertical feet...all of it in untracked powder. This is May??
Tomorrow should be just as good. It's supposed to keep snowing until then, and Mineral Basin has been closed since Wednesday. All of that wind has just been piling stuff up back there, waiting for tomorrow.
Yeah, we knew it snowed, but we'd expected a few inches of heavy cream cheese. What we got instead was nearly two feet of 7% or 8% dreamy May powder!
It was barely flurrying as I met up with Bob Dangerous at the Bypass Road at 8:30, figuring to catch first tram at 9, but we watched a loaded cabin head up the hill as we poled down to Snowbird Center. :x No matter, the place was empty until noon, and there was plenty to go around. It was just the two of us -- Marc_C went out in the desert with his wife, Sam was likely working, and Skidog was having a refrigerator delivered :lol: . The Kid, a typical teenager, slept in. I have no clue what Amy, Tele Jon or Pat's excuses were.
Man, was it cold on Hidden Peak! If I didn't know any better I'd swear that it was February. The peak was in the clouds, and a strong northwesterly wind was blowing snow sideways. Our faces sandblasted, I couldn't wait to get off the ridgeline, and sure enough things calmed down only a few hundred feet below. The problem was that it was true braille skiing -- you couldn't see a thing and had to let feedback from your skis tell you what you were skiing across. You couldn't tell where the sky ended and the snow began. We tried a second lap out toward Old Lady's, and found the snow even more wind affected over there. It was time to move on in search of better snow.
And we found it in Nirvana. One, maybe two tracks down through there. Positively amazing. Knee deep or better. Below the Point of No Return I let those Goliaths run, and man, oh man, were they the right purchase. I don't think that I've ever enjoyed powder turns that fast, that consistent, and that reliable. By now, too, the snow had resumed in earnest. In fact, it fell at moderate rates throughout the rest of our day.
We found even more of the same in Tower 2 chute, just free-falling through the trees with abandon. We wrapped around across Dalton's to Mach Schnell, finding cut up powder there but still an amazing rush.
We headed up Gadzoom and Little Cloud to hit Lone Pine to the lower end of The Wave. We stepped down over the rocks at the top of Lone Pine, but I let them run a bit too soon and scored a core shot for my impatience, but below that it was more creamy, dreamy untracked.
Back up Gadzoom and Little Cloud again, I repeated Tower 2 -- still just as good and untracked as the first time, save for our two tracks from the first trip -- while Bob angled right into Tower 3 chute, finding only two sets of tracks over there. We regrouped at the Anderson's traverse and descended via the trees between Dalton's and Mach Schnell.
It was time for lunch, and after a hearty sandwich at the Forklift we boarded the tram again. This time, though, there was a line through half the maze. It seems that folks caught wind this morning of what was happening up there and showed up late to enjoy what was left. We headed up the hike to the High Baldy Traverse along with lots of passholders through blowing snow stinging our faces. One gust felt like it would blow me over the edge into the abyss of Chamonix Cliffs. We headed out and down via Eddie's and the trees between that and Pyramid Rock. We worked our way right above Eye of the Needle into Palm Springs, down to Chip's and back to our trucks, completely satisfied.
Nine runs, 18,310 vertical feet...all of it in untracked powder. This is May??
Tomorrow should be just as good. It's supposed to keep snowing until then, and Mineral Basin has been closed since Wednesday. All of that wind has just been piling stuff up back there, waiting for tomorrow.
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