Alta/Snowbird, UT 1/5/2014

[Admin]

Day 28: A gift.

Holy cow, it was cold this morning! Just below zero with a brisk wind. I was under-dressed and took half a run straight to Watson Shelter and sat out the first hour while the others skied, and when I finally emerged I went straight to my truck to grab another layer.

We had another big group today, including AmyZ, Bobby Danger, Telejon, rdwore, Sam, TheOtherAmy, Corey and their cousin Kate. What we found was highly variable. Greeley Hill was disappointing wind slab. With the wind loading ASP kept nearly all gates closed.

Just before lunch we split up; I stayed at Alta with TheOtherAmy and Kate for a Condo Run out of the wind while the others headed to Snowbird to get blasted by a 30 mph headwind out Road to Provo. We all reconvened in the GMD Tavern for pizza.

After lunch, however, we discovered that Snowbird Patrol left us a marvelous surprise gift down low on the mountain and out of the wind.

Now, any regulars will recognize where that is. It's no real secret. But virtually no one else realized that it was open for the first time all season, save for two random guys who followed us in. It wasn't even open just before lunch. There were only two tracks left in it, and they were both Patrol tracks.

rdwore and AmyZ

One of the random guys

rdwore

Mt. Superior

Comma Chute is starting to fill in

That was just too good. So good, in fact, that we had to do it again, this time the right side that didn't even have any Patrol tracks. We thus ended the day on a high note at 4pm.

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[Tony Crocker]

Yeah, I recognized that on the addendum to the previous post.

 

[mrgskier]

Marc:

Looks like another surprise day! Nice that you got something to keep you well entertained. I like the picture of Dwore....dramatic with the cliffs in the background.

Not good here...45F and rain due after the freezing rain tonight. Looks like our re-opening since Friday will end tomorrow....

 

[Bobby Danger]

DAY...32... SNOWBIRD gave us the HOOO gate for the FIRST time this season . very quietly and non- attention getting way we had truely backcountry QUALITY runs this afternoon . -THANK YOU snowbird- down too the top of whoodunnit back down the condo access road out to the alta transportation bus stop , and dropped at the bottom of altas lifts . the wind overnight did some damage to the snow that fell yesterday on most of the mtn. only select areas where it was protected enough was their still any evidence of yesterdays snow . skidog and i skied a somewhat late sunspot very early west rustler diagionally down through the trees yesterday afternoon last run, that was completely blown clean of any new snow overnight , to bad that was the sweetest run to that point yesterday . there's alot of sugar on the side of that hill on north facing , what i figure is snowbird wanted that acreage skied but they didn't want a ton of people clammering for it , so in a very quiet way we did what snowbird wanted , again thank you !! no service fees apply

 

[Admin]

Not good here...45F and rain due after the freezing rain tonight. Looks like our re-opening since Friday will end tomorrow....

Yeah, a little bird sent me this photo of Gazelle at MRG today, and that's before the rain)

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[jojo_obrien]

I think the consensus today was.........it was cold!

Started out around 945.....went up Gadzoom to Little Cloud ......the groomers were stiff and firm (the air has just sucked the moisture out) ......but nevertheless its always best in the morning on the groomers.

Went over to Mineral Basin and took a few laps. Blue by You (not super familiar w/ names) -- the wind really did a number on this run...I tried dropping in but it was that rimey crust that's not easy to rip through on 85 mm underfoot. Windy and cold back there..probably sub zero w/ wind chill factor. Very few folks were skiing back there, especially on Baldy which was by far the most wind exposed.

Headed over to Alta and took a few laps on Sugarloaf. Sure was nice to have less folks on the runs...........

Headed back to the Bird for some laps..........went and skiied over near Peruvian.......some icy/firm spots but.....skiiable.

Stopped for a coffee and went up the mountain with a friend ( a beginning skier ) up Mid Gad. I literally wanted to shoot myself in the face........the lift stopped no less than 10 times..........

Did some more laps off of Little Cloud and Gad 2. Most everything was firm..................really need a 2 foot dump..

Finished the day off w/ the Gad Chutes....some stashes to be found with variable consistency. I think the wind did something to it last night to make it a little bit more challenging to ski..........

Waiting for it to dump!!!!!!! :snowball fight:

 

[BobMc]

Today was all about finding where the wind blew the loose snow. Yesterday was the better day as everything was blanketed uniformly. Last night the winds took the snow and moved it about the mountain. The cold temps made for slow going, I seemed to do a lot of poling.

We made it to the top of the tram at 9:15, the winds were whipping. I was hoping to snag mineral first thing and get a little solar action to offset the cold. That wasn't to happen as they had mineral and baldy closed, so it was off to road to Provo. That was a bitter heat sucking journey! By the time we reached Mark Malu I was chilled to the bone. We beat feet down to the top of Hoops and found a 20 feet wide tongue of wind buff surrounded by wind scoured nastiness. After milking the tongue down to the bottom of little cloud we decided to forgo a chilling ride to the top and opted to keep going down to gad 2.

Just as I assumed the wind had deposited its bounty into the trees. We lapped that a few times and then decided to brave a ride up little cloud to see if mineral had opened. Timing seemed to be our forte as they had just opened the gates, a quick jaunt down the cat track lead to an untracked run of wind buff through powder paradise. The wind had also filled in Cham bowl and we had an unmolested line down that as well.

The cold chased us off the hill by 1:30, and we headed home to watch the Packers lose . Hopefully next week we see a bit of new snow!

 

[Quickturns]

Admin, you need to bring back the GPS tracker that you were using early last year. It was informative to see where you were testing the snow on certain days.

 

[Admin]

Admin, you need to bring back the GPS tracker that you were using early last year. It was informative to see where you were testing the snow on certain days.

I give away too much that way. :wink: Actually, it was just too much of a pain to maintain.