Day 53: Deep snow, deep blue
Met up for the opening bell with Bobby Danger, Marc_C and Pat. We knew that we'd have to get to the goods quickly as the strong April sun would do its dirty work quickly.
While patrol worked to open Devil's Castle, Ballroom and Baldy Shoulder opened for the first time since Friday and Saturday's storm, so we headed straight there. Good stuff, but the line we'd planned to ski got hit right as we were heading out the traverse. No matter, it was still good, and deep. Too deep, for just above Harold's I hit a deeper pocket and went over the handlebars. I landed on my back, head downhill and the sky disappeared. Snow filled my throat as I coughed and fought to clear the snow from my face -- but doing snow just put more snow there. Frightening, actually. When I got my head above the surface I couldn't move my legs, and actually had to have Marc_C help me out of that mess.
We headed over to Sugarloaf to check out the scene on Devil's Castle, and patrol was making a second run after kicking off some decent slides. After a cruiser and riding back up the lift to Sugarloaf Pass Bobby noticed that they'd just opened the Chamonix Chutes in Mineral Basin, so he and I headed over there while Marc_C stayed behind with Pat.
Once in Mineral, however, we also noticed that they'd just opened Hilary Step leading to the Sunday Chutes and the Bookends, so that was calling first. We scored divine untracked out in the Sunday Cliffs.
Now, back to business, we headed for Chamonix. We traversed in way east to reach untracked goods, which by now were starting to dampen significantly. Bob skied down to set up for a video scene when from the cliffs above a waterfall of avalanche debris started suddenly. Not sure how much was coming I quickly moved out of the way. Fortunately, it stopped as quickly as it started.
We headed back to Alta via the Armpit Gate, scoring still more untracked, this time still of the lighter variety. Things were getting manky quickly, though, so while at lunch at GMD I decided to call it a day.
[skitube2]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/modules/crpVideo/pnmedia/videos/1238970180_2009-04-05_AltaBird.flv[/skitube2]
Met up for the opening bell with Bobby Danger, Marc_C and Pat. We knew that we'd have to get to the goods quickly as the strong April sun would do its dirty work quickly.
While patrol worked to open Devil's Castle, Ballroom and Baldy Shoulder opened for the first time since Friday and Saturday's storm, so we headed straight there. Good stuff, but the line we'd planned to ski got hit right as we were heading out the traverse. No matter, it was still good, and deep. Too deep, for just above Harold's I hit a deeper pocket and went over the handlebars. I landed on my back, head downhill and the sky disappeared. Snow filled my throat as I coughed and fought to clear the snow from my face -- but doing snow just put more snow there. Frightening, actually. When I got my head above the surface I couldn't move my legs, and actually had to have Marc_C help me out of that mess.
We headed over to Sugarloaf to check out the scene on Devil's Castle, and patrol was making a second run after kicking off some decent slides. After a cruiser and riding back up the lift to Sugarloaf Pass Bobby noticed that they'd just opened the Chamonix Chutes in Mineral Basin, so he and I headed over there while Marc_C stayed behind with Pat.
Once in Mineral, however, we also noticed that they'd just opened Hilary Step leading to the Sunday Chutes and the Bookends, so that was calling first. We scored divine untracked out in the Sunday Cliffs.
Now, back to business, we headed for Chamonix. We traversed in way east to reach untracked goods, which by now were starting to dampen significantly. Bob skied down to set up for a video scene when from the cliffs above a waterfall of avalanche debris started suddenly. Not sure how much was coming I quickly moved out of the way. Fortunately, it stopped as quickly as it started.
We headed back to Alta via the Armpit Gate, scoring still more untracked, this time still of the lighter variety. Things were getting manky quickly, though, so while at lunch at GMD I decided to call it a day.
[skitube2]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/modules/crpVideo/pnmedia/videos/1238970180_2009-04-05_AltaBird.flv[/skitube2]
