Alta/Bird 2/21/2014

[jojo_obrien]

Started out at Snowbird -- Little Cloud to Road to Provo. RtP offered some beautiful wind produced powder. There was approximately 3-4 inches of new snow from the previous night. Hardly a soul in sight for the first few hours. Snow was typical Utah low density fluff. Care needed to be taken in some areas, as the 4" was on top of previously skied subsurface from the previous day. Went over to Gad 2 with the hopes that Upper Tiger Tail would be open. The Ski Patrol shack noted Upper Bananas gate was closed. It looked sublime, but closed. I would find out late in the day that they in fact DID open this section..........doh!

Sun was out on Mineral Basin and it skied exceptionally well. Some great powder pillows offered face shots first thing in the morning. A beautiful way to start the day.

Headed over to Alta with the intention of skiing Backside and Ballroom. With AM routes planned, these have been typically opening up around 11 am to 1 pm this season. Unfortunately, they had Backside completely open (high and low gates) by the time I transitioned to Alta at around 10 am. Backside looked fairly tracked with mashed potatoes by this point, so I headed to Ballroom. Took a line down Tombstone -- completely untracked. Absolutely beautiful skiing and wow.....what a line. Headed back up and ran into Amyz and Matt F for some more turns in Ballroom. I must say, Ballroom is one of my favorite lines in all of Alta (traversing to the far east, that is). Not terribly steep but typically quite untracked. Easy traverse......

We headed over to Catherines and took a beautiful , pretty much completely untracked line over there. We parted ways around noon, and I headed back over to Mineral. Still from noon to 1 pm, I was getting nearly completely untracked face shots on Chamonix Bowl. Really unbelievable considering it was a Friday. I was quite content. It was eerily empty back there for a Friday......nearly non existent lines. As I skied down Regulator J / Little Cloud in some beautiful wind buff, to the bus stop to catch the 1:30 , I noted tracks on the High Traverse off of Gad 2 / Baby Thunder. Definitely appears Tiger Tail 2 had opened. I think that explains the lack of skiers / boarders in Mineral Basin.

All in all, a beautiful, bluebird day...........

 

[Marc_C]

...transitioned to Alta at around 10 am. Backside looked fairly tracked with mashed potatoes by this point, so I headed to Ballroom. Took a line down Tombstone -- completely untracked. Absolutely beautiful skiing and wow.....what a line. Headed back up and ran into Amyz and Matt F for some more turns in Ballroom. I must say, Ballroom is one of my favorite lines in all of Alta (traversing to the far east, that is). Not terribly steep but typically quite untracked. Easy traverse......

Just to be all nit-picky: the Ballroom (all blue square terrain) ends at the rope line at the bottom of Main Chute. Everything beyond that - Harold's, Boneyard, Tombstone, Graveyard, Tombstone Too, Armpit, Onno's Slide, etc - are all Baldy Shoulder (black diamond terrain).

BTW, Admin and I are such sticklers for correct naming for two major reasons (neither of which are anal-retentive or OCD!):
1. If a scattered group is going to meet somewhere or regroup at the top of a particular run/feature, it's more than helpful if everyone actually arrives at said meeting spot by knowing what the name refers to. We had one former local who was infamous for not caring about or paying attention to place names. One day on the lift we said "let's do Chartreuse Slot", which we all headed to except for mr. I-don't-care, who cleverly made a high-speed run to....the Supreme lift.

2. More importantly, if I'm skiing with you and get injured or caught in a slide and you go off to get help, I sure as hell want you giving ski patrol an accurate location.

 

[jojo_obrien]

good points.......its incredible that they have different names for all of the chutes ...........for example...i call everything in glory hole "glory hole" but its got all the parts of the heart, correct ???

i should get a map like admin in my home office to reference as i write these reports............(so as to reference "Patsy Marley" instead of my reference of "that place out of bounds of off Catherines") ..........

 

[Marc_C]

good points.......its incredible that they have different names for all of the chutes ...........for example...i call everything in glory hole "glory hole" but its got all the parts of the heart, correct ???

Sort of - it's the entrances that are named, but only the major ones: Left Ventricle, Right Ventricle, and Angina. Not sure about the southern one that requires a hike from the Keyhole (no, not that Keyhole, the other Keyhole! That's because the real Keyhole is actually on Snowbird terrain and merely a gate on the Alta side of things whereas the Alta Keyhole is where the connector trail from Germainia Pass to Devil's Elbow passes thhrough. How's that for confusion?)

i should get a map like admin in my home office to reference as i write these reports............(so as to reference "Patsy Marley" instead of my reference of "that place out of bounds of off Catherines") ..........

Yes you should!
Hmmmm..... we kinda get into a little bit of a touchy area here about that other part. Not so much from the "secret stash" standpoint (there really aren't any - just some that are a bit more obscure) but from the standpoint that on some days it really isn't too safe out there and other days were you still need to follow safe travel protocol crossing a few terrain features. Since it's such easily accessible side country it's probably better to not give too many hints so those who don't have the assessment skills might not be tempted? I dunno.....maybe I'm being overly cautious, but sooner or later someone is gonna get the chop over there. Look at the close call in Grizzly Gulch earlier this year.

I suggest just calling it side country off of Catherine's.

 

[Admin]

no, not that Keyhole, the other Keyhole! ...How's that for confusion?

Not to mention that High Nowhere and Eddie's High Nowhere are two completely different places.

jojo_obrien, don't forget that a photo of that map is preserved in this forum as a sticky.