Alta 7/8/08

[Admin]

There are sectors of Alta that get tracked out within 20 minutes of the rope drop and getting off the Tram next door on a big powder day can be a life risking experience.

Those are the days for Solitude and Powder Mt.

Yeah, but I think Marc's being coy here. See my comments above regarding learning the pattern. 20 minutes after that rope drop gets tracked out another rope is dropping somewhere else, and that pattern will continue well into the afternoon. What a well-informed local has over the occasional visitor is the knowledge of what's about to happen where and timing their positioning accordingly. After that it's a matter of knowing where the nooks and crannies are that will still hold freshies, another element of local knowledge. It can be done, and we've proven it so. Ask any visitor who's tagged along with us on a powder day. :wink:

 

[salida]

I'm with Admin here, I've never had a problem finding the goods, and as judged by their performance, I don't think I'll have a problem in the future. Sure it can be crowded on occasion, but I'm sure it wont be that bad.

 

[icelanticskier]

you'll find the goods alright, nice thing about some of the less cowded pow places is you don't need to learn the opening patterns to stay in the fresh all day and about solitude there are so many better places than honeycomb to lap on pow days with an easy traverse here or short boot pack there, wayyyyy better. salida will learn that alta on a pow day is like showing up at stowe on a pow day when the locals are starving and 300 of em are waiting for an 8 am wed non holiday chair to open. believe me, my dorm room at the alta lodge where i lived looked right up high rustler and i would wake up and see the congo lines forming way before the lifts would open. heck, at solitude on the same day there'd be barely a soul for plenty good terrain and way better preservation. nice that you'll have choices. i'll be out for a time next winter alternating between solitude, mid/upper bcc bc and mid lcc bc and lookin forward to it.
if i were there now i'd be skiing every day i could, good on ya for takin advantage of such a precious commodity.
rog

 

[Marc_C]

if i were there now i'd be skiing every day i could,

But there's so much other stuff to do now. And while the novelty factor is there, the skiing quality really isn't.

 

[Marc_C]

There are sectors of Alta that get tracked out within 20 minutes of the rope drop and getting off the Tram next door on a big powder day can be a life risking experience.

Those are the days for Solitude and Powder Mt.

Yeah, but I think Marc's being coy here. See my comments above regarding learning the pattern.

Without a doubt! I've long maintained that there really aren't any "secret" stashes at Alta - just secret times.

 

[icelanticskier]

if i were there now i'd be skiing every day i could,

But there's so much other stuff to do now. And while the novelty factor is there, the skiing quality really isn't.

i hear ya. there's lots of other stuff to do here as well but, why not do it all? if i could ski here year round here i'd put in at least one day a week cuz skiings my favorite activity, then there are the trifecta days. waves from bertha are finally here! 4 foot swells at 13second intervals=as good as any pow day, i'm gonna ride untracked h2o faces all morning-yeehaw!
rog