Alta/Snowbird 3/12/14, Little Chute!

[jojo_obrien]

Started out at Alta (bad call)......if its the day after a storm......don't ever expect gates to be open at Alta at 9:20. Collins to Sugarloaf and then over into Snowbird (Baldy).

Looked over at Bookends and it was half gone. ](*,) I usually start the day doing Gadzoom to Little Cloud to scope out the scene and then Mineral...I had forgotten that Powder Paradise and Bookends was closed yesterday. Anyways, a bunch of very happy people were on it at 9:05 AM. Oh well.......

Took a few runs on Chamonix Bowl ....untracked and rippin. Nobody there. Beautiful lines in the sun, no clouds.

Saw that the gate was open to access the Sugar Cliffs. Not in the mood for the * show over towards the Bookends Traverse, I headed over to the Sugar Cliffs. Interesting thing...the top half skied absolutely beautifully. The bottom half...well........it was like there was 2" of rime or cake on top of 14" of pow. It required a fair amount of effort to dig in. I guarantee the Tuesday afternoon sun baked those aspects....... I took about 2, maybe 3 laps over there until I was satiated. It was good skiing. Very few people over there. Took a low line on Livin the Dream......see pics.

Saw that Ballroom was opening at Alta. Took the low gate (line was backed up to the chair lift.....yay!) and had an absolutely glorious run, all untracked. Everyone storms the main gate while there are easy lines to be had if you go low.....no wait at all. It skied beautifully, no crust, no rime.

Lapped it again, line had died down......and went over to Tombstone area. Sometimes this is avalanche/bomb debris free...not today. It's one of my favorite lines and it was kinda toast from a asp bomb. I skied on the ridges of Tombstone and they skied beautifully. 14" of fresh, medium/light snow. So good. Lapped the same line and was very very satisfied. No name cliffs looked kindof ruined from the bombs....so I figured there was very little left after Ballroom was developed. I knew that Devil's Castle would open soon, so went up to Sugarloaf.

It was about noonish (after about a 20-25 minute wait at the gate) before Devil's Castle opened. I figure I was about #20 in line. This area is so so so sweet. Not steep, but just .........glorious after a solid 14+" of new snow. I hadn't skied this area before. Needless to say, the pics will do the speaking. Sick sick sick sick lines. Effortless skiing, full throttle. Lapped it after a second time, again, great great skiing and just a blast.

Third time up Sugarloaf , needed a rest, so went down Cecret Saddle. Still, tons of beautiful, lightly tracked lines in this area. I think it got a little overlooked due to the DC opening. Nevertheless, it was fun (not a ton of vertical, but lots of untracked). Did another lap ....

Went and did two more laps at Devil's Castle, by this time, it was getting tracked, unless you stayed as far as you could to the East (underneath the actual castle looking rock -- Marc C ....give me a name).......anyways, still beautiful lines at 2:30 PM.

By 3 pm, I was pretty cooked and ready to call it a day.

Of course, Baldy was open and a LOT of people were hiking there today. I was in the mood for the low hanging fruit today. I think I got a lot of fruit........

 

[Tony Crocker]

I did not get out at opening bell either on Wednesday, so missed the Powder Paradise opening. But I got lucky as I exited the tram ~9:45 and saw the first people dropping off Road to Provo. I made the first lap fast in Little Cloud Bowl, where the snow was a bit shallow with occasional bottoming out. Lower down there was fresh snow off a knoll with some small trees and I collided with a snowboarder there. I got a shin bruise from that which needed icing at end of the day, but fortunately hurt more walking than skiing. Next 2 laps were out to Whoopsies for much deeper powder. The lift line at Little Cloud built up to around 5 minutes so I stuck with it for 4 runs. I skied Little Cloud Bowl again as it was less tracked and on a diagonal line at more intermediate pitch for less hitting bottom. Just one pic from the chair.

I skied into Mineral and out the lower traverse for some cut up powder in the Bookends. Like jojo-obrien I noticed the Sugar Cliff tracks and wanted to go over there. But first I returned to little Cloud one more time and collected Liz. We skied into Mineral, rode up Baldy and traversed far skier's left.

Interesting thing...the top half skied absolutely beautifully. The bottom half...well........it was like there was 2" of rime or cake on top of 14" of pow. It required a fair amount of effort to dig in. I guarantee the Tuesday afternoon sun baked those aspects.....

We were there about 11:30 so more baked and more tracked but a similar experience. That middle section, how much sun could it possibly have gotten Tuesday? The answer is not a lot but enough to create that rime. This a perfect example of what I warn people about for Jackson's vast amount of terrain with that exposure. In March it's not like you need a day of sun to #%$^ up the snow; just an hour or two can be enough.

My next idea with our Mountain Collective combined tickets was to take the High Baldy Traverse to the Alta ropeline and ski a likely pristine Upper Armpit. This is exactly what Liz did with a rave review. But while hiking I noticed that the hiking trail to Baldy summit had opened from the Snowbird side. it took only 15 minutes to get up there from the High Baldy Traverse, being passed by quite a few young locals on the way. Hiker coming from Snowbird.

The always impressive view from the top.

After a 5 minute rest I skied along the top, soon coming to the view down Little Chute.

Another skier Chris comes by and asks, "Is THAT Main Chute?" I said no and now he asks, "Are you thinking about skiing this? I'd want a partner to go in there." As intimidating as the view was and knowing it's a below average snowpack, I also knew the snow would be soft and forgiving. So we went for it, skiing 50 feet or so down the broad face between Main and Little, then traversing in under the rock band. The first few turns were one at a time. Looking up at Chris.

The middle section opens up.

It's still steep 40+ degrees all the way so even my open powder turns were smeared a lot to stay in control. Looking up at Chris about to enter the middle section.

The lower section narrows again while remaining 40+, so now my turns were more of the windshield wiper variety. In harder snow I probably would have been doing one at a time here too. Here's the exit.

We were overtaken by someone skiing it more aggressively.

At the exit I traversed hard right to get a few relaxing powder turns above the Ballroom traverse, then over to Tombstone and down to Watson's to meet Liz for lunch. One of the Alta employees there said today was the first day this season Little Chute had been open.

After lunch we rode Wildcat up to do a condo run. The spray from skiers up high on Baldy Shoulder looked like some great skiing.

We encountered 2 snowboarders who came down Main Chute and were also on the way back to Snowbird.

I figured admin would appreciate these pics of his temple being defiled.

The condo runs had some tracks but there were still room for ours. We didn't ski the longer direct lines into Snowbird due to their facing the sun more directly. For our last run we took the tram and skied Upper Silver Fox, snow still soft at far skier's left. The sun glare and camera effect spotlighted Liz here.

18,800 vertical, but a day that will be remembered for its quality and my first descent of little Chute.

 

[jojo_obrien]

I figured admin would appreciate these pics of his temple being defiled.

 

[Skidog]

BobbyD and I were just talking about how over the last 2 or so seasons Snowbird has not been opening the gate to go all the way up Baldy until Alta was closed. Good to see it open, much more mellow hike from that side of baldy. I do not have the luxury of going that way anymore as I do not hold a combo pass, but still remember it fondly.

I think one spring day about 4 seasons back BobbyD and I did baldy 5 times in one day.

Way to get little chute..maybe ill ski it today looks smooth and even with it being opened i am pretty sure more are opting for Main chute and the snow in little is still nice.

 

[Marc_C]

I think one spring day about 4 seasons back BobbyD and I did baldy 5 times in one day.

That's impressive for old farts seeing that 5 trips adds 7.5 miles of hiking and 3500' of climbing to the day! Actually that would be most of the day. Using the standard 3 mi/hr hiking speed* plus an hour for each 1K feet of elevation gain* gives around 6 hours of hiking - that's about the entire time the gate is open (closes at 3p).

*: those "standard" figures are what are used by the AMC for estimating times on the Appalachian Trail. They are based on what humans can do, not Wasatch animals.

 

[Skidog]

I think one spring day about 4 seasons back BobbyD and I did baldy 5 times in one day.

That's impressive for old farts seeing that 5 trips adds 7.5 miles of hiking and 3500' of climbing to the day! Actually that would be most of the day. Using the standard 3 mi/hr hiking speed* plus an hour for each 1K feet of elevation gain* gives around 6 hours of hiking - that's about the entire time the gate is open (closes at 3p).

*: those "standard" figures are what are used by the AMC for estimating times on the Appalachian Trail. They are based on what humans can do, not Wasatch animals.

Its all we skied that day...literally...just baldy after baldy after.........i was tired....it was fun.

I've also ripped regulators with bobbyd in the spring, racing the tram. One day we got 5 back to backs and only missed #6 by about 3 seconds (tram light on desk just went red as we entered the door). If you do the math on that....using 12 min round trips and 3K vertical thats 15K vert in 60 min. Add another 12 min (sincne we mimssed that #6 tram) and in under 1 anad a quater hours we skied 18K vertical...its sometimes fun bombing the hill like that.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Yesterday afternoon I skied with Allene, a Utah local who I met cat skiing at Chatter Creek. We did 4 tram laps in about an hour 45 minutes. Her favorite run (we did 3x) is Great Scott, then bomb groomers on the lower half of the hill. We definitely reloaded the same tram once, maybe twice.

 

[stan]

Nice-

I have only done Little once, and that was in the high snow year a rew seasons back. Getting in has more of a pucker factor than Main (I dropped in over the lip at skier's right), and there is a crux about half-way down, but I recall most of it as being buttery and smooth. The snow was so deep that year that I was able to cross over to Dogleg on a fairly wide path across the rocks between the two. The bottom of Dogleg widens as it drops, letting even an old cautious tele guy like me open it up and have some fun.