Days 6-7
Friend Scott and I went to Snowbird on Saturday morning and hooked up with BobMc and TravieB. They were running the Tram, Gadzoom, Mid-Gad and for the first time this season Gad 2, although the only open route off of Gad 2 was Election, leading back to Bassackwards.
In contrast to their neighbor next door, Snowbird was only allowing skiing on the few runs with manmade snow. It also meant that every single skier or snowboarder riding one of those open lifts had to come back down through Big Emma. As a result, things felt awfully crowded everywhere other than Regulator Johnson, where our strategy was to simply remain on Hidden Peak until most of the folks we shared a tram cabin with started down ahead of us. The manmade snow was firm and somewhat scratchy in places.
By noon all four of us called it quits, and I went further up the canyon to spend the afternoon with the usual Alta posse. By contrast, Alta was only loading every other chair to preserve both the snow and the downhill experience. The difference was appreciated, for I'd rather wait a few more minutes at the bottom and have plenty of elbow room on the descent.
The storm that was originally supposed to drop 4" or perhaps somewhat more turned out to be a real disappointment, leaving only an inch during Saturday's ski day and another inch overnight into Sunday, when things cleared out. There's no doubt that it improved surfaces nevertheless, and by suffering through the alders at the bottom of Backside we were able to score some more legitimate untracked skiing. And it was great to bump into Stan in the Sugarloaf line, albeit only briefly.
Friend Scott and I went to Snowbird on Saturday morning and hooked up with BobMc and TravieB. They were running the Tram, Gadzoom, Mid-Gad and for the first time this season Gad 2, although the only open route off of Gad 2 was Election, leading back to Bassackwards.
In contrast to their neighbor next door, Snowbird was only allowing skiing on the few runs with manmade snow. It also meant that every single skier or snowboarder riding one of those open lifts had to come back down through Big Emma. As a result, things felt awfully crowded everywhere other than Regulator Johnson, where our strategy was to simply remain on Hidden Peak until most of the folks we shared a tram cabin with started down ahead of us. The manmade snow was firm and somewhat scratchy in places.
By noon all four of us called it quits, and I went further up the canyon to spend the afternoon with the usual Alta posse. By contrast, Alta was only loading every other chair to preserve both the snow and the downhill experience. The difference was appreciated, for I'd rather wait a few more minutes at the bottom and have plenty of elbow room on the descent.
The storm that was originally supposed to drop 4" or perhaps somewhat more turned out to be a real disappointment, leaving only an inch during Saturday's ski day and another inch overnight into Sunday, when things cleared out. There's no doubt that it improved surfaces nevertheless, and by suffering through the alders at the bottom of Backside we were able to score some more legitimate untracked skiing. And it was great to bump into Stan in the Sugarloaf line, albeit only briefly.
Nothing terrible, though, right in the center and only shallow. It's the only thing I've hit and I've been using them full-time ever since. They're only tools -- they can be fixed or replaced.
