In recent years we nearly always ski the opening day Sunday of Iron Blosam week at Alta with former admin.
The big news this year is that the Mineral Basin chair is down, and it looks like that happened when Tseeb was there Feb. 27. I have not inquired myself, but word of mouth was that it was a gearbox but that the part was now here. Nonetheless we saw no signs of life looking into Mineral Basin from Sugarloaf Pass Sunday.
Nor on Monday from the top of Little Cloud where the MB chair base is visible:
Weather was calm and blue sky Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday, so why is nothing happening? Today we hear that the gearbox is too heavy to transport by snowcat so they need a helicopter. Winds were up today and a storm is coming, so who knows when the repair will get done?
All of this means you have to take a bus to Alta. Rather than wait half an hour (could be more on a weekend) for the UTA bus, Liz and I skied Blackjack to the condos and picked up the local Alta shuttle that we have used before after condo area powder runs.
We met former admin, Telejon, Malcolm and Kingslug around 11:30. First run up Collins we skied the early part of Ballroom.
In the warm weather the snow does not melt/freeze up there, but it was set up churned powder from the day before, so not great. The rest of the day we pretty much stuck to groomers. The last one with former admin was from Wildcat, where we had this view of Mt. Baldy and lots of tracks from skiers who had hiked it and skied Baldy Shoulder.
There are 6 new Wyssen towers visible in that pic for avalanche control. I first saw them at Ischgl in 2017.
Former admin left at noon(!) because he needed to film and work on his Grand Adventure video for which he posts new content every Wednesday. I remarked that this is the first time I've seen that encroach upon his ski time. But don't feel too sorry for him. On Saturday he made the rope drop for Backside after last week's 4 foot dump.
Here's local editorial opinion in the current era when Utah skier visits have more than doubled in the past 20 years.
Since it was a mellow day the group liked my suggestion of a lunch at Rustler Lodge. We got there via a cruise through the Sugarloaf and Sunnyside sectors from top of Collins. By the time that lunch was over the locals departed to beat weekend traffic. View of Sugarloaf lift, Backside and Greeley Hill from top of Sunnyside:
We skied one groomer on Supreme and two on Sugarloaf before taking the EBT. I took the Ballroom traverse out to Harold's, which had more chalky snow. Liz rode the bus back to Snowbird while I skied the very tedious Blackjack traverse.
In early morning Liz had one warmup lap of Peruvian and I had two before heading to Alta. I skied 5,900 vertical at Snowbird and 13,500 at Alta.
The big news this year is that the Mineral Basin chair is down, and it looks like that happened when Tseeb was there Feb. 27. I have not inquired myself, but word of mouth was that it was a gearbox but that the part was now here. Nonetheless we saw no signs of life looking into Mineral Basin from Sugarloaf Pass Sunday.
Nor on Monday from the top of Little Cloud where the MB chair base is visible:
Weather was calm and blue sky Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday, so why is nothing happening? Today we hear that the gearbox is too heavy to transport by snowcat so they need a helicopter. Winds were up today and a storm is coming, so who knows when the repair will get done?
All of this means you have to take a bus to Alta. Rather than wait half an hour (could be more on a weekend) for the UTA bus, Liz and I skied Blackjack to the condos and picked up the local Alta shuttle that we have used before after condo area powder runs.
We met former admin, Telejon, Malcolm and Kingslug around 11:30. First run up Collins we skied the early part of Ballroom.
In the warm weather the snow does not melt/freeze up there, but it was set up churned powder from the day before, so not great. The rest of the day we pretty much stuck to groomers. The last one with former admin was from Wildcat, where we had this view of Mt. Baldy and lots of tracks from skiers who had hiked it and skied Baldy Shoulder.
There are 6 new Wyssen towers visible in that pic for avalanche control. I first saw them at Ischgl in 2017.
Former admin left at noon(!) because he needed to film and work on his Grand Adventure video for which he posts new content every Wednesday. I remarked that this is the first time I've seen that encroach upon his ski time. But don't feel too sorry for him. On Saturday he made the rope drop for Backside after last week's 4 foot dump.
Here's local editorial opinion in the current era when Utah skier visits have more than doubled in the past 20 years.
Since it was a mellow day the group liked my suggestion of a lunch at Rustler Lodge. We got there via a cruise through the Sugarloaf and Sunnyside sectors from top of Collins. By the time that lunch was over the locals departed to beat weekend traffic. View of Sugarloaf lift, Backside and Greeley Hill from top of Sunnyside:
We skied one groomer on Supreme and two on Sugarloaf before taking the EBT. I took the Ballroom traverse out to Harold's, which had more chalky snow. Liz rode the bus back to Snowbird while I skied the very tedious Blackjack traverse.
In early morning Liz had one warmup lap of Peruvian and I had two before heading to Alta. I skied 5,900 vertical at Snowbird and 13,500 at Alta.
