Saturday's decision where to ski was a more complex call than Friday's. With 16+ inches new snow the smoother subsurface at Alta from being closed Monday-Thursday was no longer relevant IMHO. Admin may disagree, but nobody was hitting bottom at Snowbird with that much snow, particularly since the storm started out high density before lightening up through the night. Admin was correct in his prediction of greater crowds at Snowbird, more on that later. Ultimately Snowbird was chosen so our eastern guests Rob and Liz who are not in LCC so much could ski both areas over the 3 days. Their host Andy has a Snowbird only pass and hit 100 days for the season this weekend.
We did not get up there until after 9AM so I parked in the lot across from Chickadee as the Alta Bypass Road spots were already full. We did not even look at the tram as thankfully Peruvian was open. Rob is a Killington instructor and had some fat ski demos. Liz is a strong skier with K2 Phat Luvs but has much less powder experience. So Andy chose traverse-intensive runs on a busy day to maximize untracked much as admin or I would have done.
The first run was a series of low Baldy traverses/fall lines essentially identical to the second run admin led back on Fat Tuesday March 8.
Liz and Rob
Liz and Andy
We arrived back at Peruvian to the longest line I've ever seen there, probably 10 minutes. Up the chair we were relieved to see the the tunnel open (though without the conveyor belt) so we walked through to Mineral Basin. No surprise there was a similar line for that chair, but it remained in the 10 minute range while we were there most of the morning. First 3 runs up the lift were all out past Powder Paradise in the interest of snow quality. Hillary Step opened after our first run, so Rob and Andy climbed it twice and I once for a run far out the Bookends.
Weather was overcast all day so the snow stayed winter conditions except for maybe the lowest quarter of the mountain. There were localized fog patches and combined with the crowds for the Mineral chair I took no pictures back there. Visibility wasn't all that bad as I only wore goggles for one of the Powder Paradise traverses all day long.
Departing Mineral Basin we hiked to the High Baldy Traverse.
Andy led us to the Alta boundary, then into Boneyard, which I had not skied before. Rob in Boneyard:
We got down to the Plaza at 1:45PM, late enough to wait only 10 minutes to get into the Forklift for lunch. I would not have wanted to be down there an hour earlier given that Mid-Gad and Rendezvous restaurants were closed for the season.
After lunch enough jaded locals had gone home so we could use the tram. Andy led us out the Cirque Traverse toward the Gad Chutes and I suggested we push out to Wilbere Bowl/Lone Pine for the longer fall line and perhaps less traffic. Rob and Andy skiing there:
Snow was well churned by 3:30, but I could find soft pockets for most turns. But these are still very demanding runs and Liz called it a day when we got to the road at the top of Big Emma.
There was still time for Andy, Rob and me to catch last tram, so we headed for North Chute. Here I'm below that during a rare break in the cloudy weather.
17,300 today, about half powder.
As noted above I have observed the increase in Snowbird's crowds vs. Alta this season. I don't think it's due to snowboarders as I didn't notice an outsize proportion of them Saturday. I find little excuse for not running Gadzoom or opening one of the other restaurants on a Saturday with 16 inches new snow. This situation is ironic because excessive lift lines at Alta before Collins went high speed in 2005 were my primary complaint there. When fully operating Snowbird's lines other than the tram are still manageable, but the difference in traffic does effect how fast powder gets tracked out. I still believe the combined ticket offers maximum flexibility on powder days, though not an option on April 30 with Baldy and Sugarloaf lifts closed.
At any rate it was an amazing weekend. You know it's good when you ski April 29 to May 1 on the powder boards and the everyday skis never get out of the bag!
We did not get up there until after 9AM so I parked in the lot across from Chickadee as the Alta Bypass Road spots were already full. We did not even look at the tram as thankfully Peruvian was open. Rob is a Killington instructor and had some fat ski demos. Liz is a strong skier with K2 Phat Luvs but has much less powder experience. So Andy chose traverse-intensive runs on a busy day to maximize untracked much as admin or I would have done.
The first run was a series of low Baldy traverses/fall lines essentially identical to the second run admin led back on Fat Tuesday March 8.
Liz and Rob
Liz and Andy
We arrived back at Peruvian to the longest line I've ever seen there, probably 10 minutes. Up the chair we were relieved to see the the tunnel open (though without the conveyor belt) so we walked through to Mineral Basin. No surprise there was a similar line for that chair, but it remained in the 10 minute range while we were there most of the morning. First 3 runs up the lift were all out past Powder Paradise in the interest of snow quality. Hillary Step opened after our first run, so Rob and Andy climbed it twice and I once for a run far out the Bookends.
Weather was overcast all day so the snow stayed winter conditions except for maybe the lowest quarter of the mountain. There were localized fog patches and combined with the crowds for the Mineral chair I took no pictures back there. Visibility wasn't all that bad as I only wore goggles for one of the Powder Paradise traverses all day long.
Departing Mineral Basin we hiked to the High Baldy Traverse.
Andy led us to the Alta boundary, then into Boneyard, which I had not skied before. Rob in Boneyard:
We got down to the Plaza at 1:45PM, late enough to wait only 10 minutes to get into the Forklift for lunch. I would not have wanted to be down there an hour earlier given that Mid-Gad and Rendezvous restaurants were closed for the season.
After lunch enough jaded locals had gone home so we could use the tram. Andy led us out the Cirque Traverse toward the Gad Chutes and I suggested we push out to Wilbere Bowl/Lone Pine for the longer fall line and perhaps less traffic. Rob and Andy skiing there:
Snow was well churned by 3:30, but I could find soft pockets for most turns. But these are still very demanding runs and Liz called it a day when we got to the road at the top of Big Emma.
There was still time for Andy, Rob and me to catch last tram, so we headed for North Chute. Here I'm below that during a rare break in the cloudy weather.
17,300 today, about half powder.
As noted above I have observed the increase in Snowbird's crowds vs. Alta this season. I don't think it's due to snowboarders as I didn't notice an outsize proportion of them Saturday. I find little excuse for not running Gadzoom or opening one of the other restaurants on a Saturday with 16 inches new snow. This situation is ironic because excessive lift lines at Alta before Collins went high speed in 2005 were my primary complaint there. When fully operating Snowbird's lines other than the tram are still manageable, but the difference in traffic does effect how fast powder gets tracked out. I still believe the combined ticket offers maximum flexibility on powder days, though not an option on April 30 with Baldy and Sugarloaf lifts closed.
At any rate it was an amazing weekend. You know it's good when you ski April 29 to May 1 on the powder boards and the everyday skis never get out of the bag!
I thought Tony was saying that Alta gets tracked out quicker.