Alta, UT 4/29/11

Day 83: Ooh la la.

I took a couple of hours from work yesterday morning to ski Alta with Crocker, Dale, Pat & Telejon. As The Dangerous One would say, it was smooooooth! Tuesday's 15" set up into a solid base through Wednesday and Thursday's warmth and because Alta was closed all week it was smooth as a pool table beneath Thursday night's 3".

Storm totals now, however, are 20". Base depths are now 207" on the last day of April. I'm driving up LCC and the road just opened. Ooh la la indeed!
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All I can say ..is holy shit...so..that all I'll say...

I drove from L.A. for 3 days of skiing. With the storm underway Alta seemed the right choice for Friday as it had been closed the past 4 days. On the first run Fred's Trees were just steep enough to hit the subsurface on many turns. But the next 2 runs on Greely Hill/North Rustler were smooth as can be, hard to believe only the reported 3 inches. Next time out there it was finally tracked enough to bounce around some. So next to far skier's right of Eagle's Nest. The subsurface was more packed powder in there, but skied better lower down where it was less steep. Last run with admin was a long traverse into the lower part of Wildcat. Once we got there my enthusiasm put me low enough down I had to walk out.

Admin went home, so I next met our eastern guests Rob and Liz, who were with some local hosts. They were skiing a different line in Eagle's Nest that was filled in very well up high but a bit bumpier lower down. After lunch we followed Dave out the "backcountry" gate toward Sugarloaf and then out Cecret Saddle to a short bowl that was as lightly tracked at 2PM as Greely Hill had been at 10AM. This was a precursor to admin's report from Saturday, when much more of Sugarloaf's terrain had powder but was neglected as it's considered backcountry with the lift closed. After one more Eagle's Nest run we called it a day to conserve energy for the 18 inches expected by Saturday morning. 21,300 vertical, about 1/3 powder.