Day 53: Another line checked off my list.
I'm still sitting here at home waiting for things to soften after yesterday's experience. The two Bobs, Tele Jon and Amy are up there, but I got a call 15 minutes ago and things are still quite firm. I went up yesterday at the usual 9 a.m. GMD meeting at Alta and much to my surprise it stayed firm much of the day. Today is a few degrees warmer but lacks the sunshine of yesterday, and wind speeds have picked up ahead of tomorrow's storm. It's not quite the warm and sunny spring weekend I was hoping for.
We had a large crew yesterday: Bobby Danger, The Other Bobby D, Pat, Amy, Tele Jon, Kingslug on his last day in Utah, Alan Moats visiting from Vermont (former U.S. Telemark Team member 1994-98 and father of telemark diva Charlotte Moats), and Skidog. The morning was spent largely on groomers, which remained firm and fast. Although the day started out sunny, clouds moved in at midday, dousing hope that things would soften appreciably. We went into Mineral Basin at Snowbird looking for softer snow and really didn't find it. Eventually the east-facing Powder Paradise groomer softened a bit, but north-facing ungroomed lines on Toad Hill remained stiff, as did Silver Fox down to the Cretin Chutes.
We headed back to Alta, choosing to wait things out on the Albion Beach with coffee from Alta Java right around the same time that the clouds thickened while Skidog and Tele Jon took a test run in the Baldy Chutes. At lunch at GMD they reported decent snow, relatively speaking, so we crafted plans to hike Baldy after lunch. I'd get the chance to tick another line off my to-do list: Dogleg Chute.
Winds were stiff as we poled across Sugarloaf Pass and dropped into Mineral Basin in horribly flat light. I dreaded what the wind would be like on the Peruvian Ridgeline during the hike, but surprisingly better weather -- lower wind and thinner clouds -- moved in from the west as we hiked.
Really, the Baldy hike on Saturday was a walk in the park compared to what it can be, and it didn't take long before we were all standing at the summit.
Once reassembled, we eased over to the top of Little Chute, a view that still gives me the willies. Most of us took the easier drop-in to skier's left, but Bobby Danger and Alan led the group by taking the ridiculously steep entrance to skier's right. One by one, we each dropped in and skied down to the split where Dogleg Chute begins to the right, about a third of the way down Little Chute and just below the crux. The choke point was wider than usual, but I'll fully admit that "skiing" it was a relative term for me. The snow was still firm and I executed a jump turn followed by a controlled sideslip for three or four feet before hopping another jump turn in the opposite direction.
Eventually we were down to just two remaining at the summit, The Other Bobby D and Kingslug.
After a while we realized that we hadn't seen Kingslug standing on the ridge in a while. The Other Bobby D skied down, and indicated that he had pointed a nervous Kingslug over to the entrance to Main Chute, which is considerably wider, easier and less steep than Little Chute. Here we split. I led the way into Dogleg with Amy and Pat, while the others continued down Little Chute. We'd rejoin Kingslug in Ballroom.
Once the three of us regrouped in Dogleg, I dropped in after Pat ratcheted down her boots another notch. I skied down to the apron and stopped, looking back up right as one of Pat's skis ripped off her foot and she took an uncharacteristic tumble. She was sliding down Dogleg head first, bumping across terrain and picking up speed.
I put myself in position to tackle her to stop her slide, but as she approached I realized that she was traveling much too quickly to do so. She slid all the way down onto the apron at Ballroom, eventually coming to a stop and giving a "thumbs up." Amy and I picked up the equipment debris and brought it down to her. She strained her shoulder and some rib muscles, but was otherwise OK. We were all thankful that the incident didn't occur higher up, for she would have tumbled down the entire chute in the same way as the fall that killed an Alta patroller there last year.
As we stood there, out from Little Chute emerged Kingslug, still quite visibly shaken from the experience. It turns out that once he entered Main Chute he traversed across The Lawn back to Little Chute and descended via Little. :shock: I'm not quite sure that he realized at the time that he was in some serious DFU terrain due to the cliffs below his traverse line, but no matter...he received some seriously congratulatory high-fives for his efforts. This was by far the biggest line he's ever skied, and returns to NY with the experience as a memory.
I'm still sitting here at home waiting for things to soften after yesterday's experience. The two Bobs, Tele Jon and Amy are up there, but I got a call 15 minutes ago and things are still quite firm. I went up yesterday at the usual 9 a.m. GMD meeting at Alta and much to my surprise it stayed firm much of the day. Today is a few degrees warmer but lacks the sunshine of yesterday, and wind speeds have picked up ahead of tomorrow's storm. It's not quite the warm and sunny spring weekend I was hoping for.
We had a large crew yesterday: Bobby Danger, The Other Bobby D, Pat, Amy, Tele Jon, Kingslug on his last day in Utah, Alan Moats visiting from Vermont (former U.S. Telemark Team member 1994-98 and father of telemark diva Charlotte Moats), and Skidog. The morning was spent largely on groomers, which remained firm and fast. Although the day started out sunny, clouds moved in at midday, dousing hope that things would soften appreciably. We went into Mineral Basin at Snowbird looking for softer snow and really didn't find it. Eventually the east-facing Powder Paradise groomer softened a bit, but north-facing ungroomed lines on Toad Hill remained stiff, as did Silver Fox down to the Cretin Chutes.
We headed back to Alta, choosing to wait things out on the Albion Beach with coffee from Alta Java right around the same time that the clouds thickened while Skidog and Tele Jon took a test run in the Baldy Chutes. At lunch at GMD they reported decent snow, relatively speaking, so we crafted plans to hike Baldy after lunch. I'd get the chance to tick another line off my to-do list: Dogleg Chute.
Winds were stiff as we poled across Sugarloaf Pass and dropped into Mineral Basin in horribly flat light. I dreaded what the wind would be like on the Peruvian Ridgeline during the hike, but surprisingly better weather -- lower wind and thinner clouds -- moved in from the west as we hiked.
Really, the Baldy hike on Saturday was a walk in the park compared to what it can be, and it didn't take long before we were all standing at the summit.
Once reassembled, we eased over to the top of Little Chute, a view that still gives me the willies. Most of us took the easier drop-in to skier's left, but Bobby Danger and Alan led the group by taking the ridiculously steep entrance to skier's right. One by one, we each dropped in and skied down to the split where Dogleg Chute begins to the right, about a third of the way down Little Chute and just below the crux. The choke point was wider than usual, but I'll fully admit that "skiing" it was a relative term for me. The snow was still firm and I executed a jump turn followed by a controlled sideslip for three or four feet before hopping another jump turn in the opposite direction.
Eventually we were down to just two remaining at the summit, The Other Bobby D and Kingslug.
After a while we realized that we hadn't seen Kingslug standing on the ridge in a while. The Other Bobby D skied down, and indicated that he had pointed a nervous Kingslug over to the entrance to Main Chute, which is considerably wider, easier and less steep than Little Chute. Here we split. I led the way into Dogleg with Amy and Pat, while the others continued down Little Chute. We'd rejoin Kingslug in Ballroom.
Once the three of us regrouped in Dogleg, I dropped in after Pat ratcheted down her boots another notch. I skied down to the apron and stopped, looking back up right as one of Pat's skis ripped off her foot and she took an uncharacteristic tumble. She was sliding down Dogleg head first, bumping across terrain and picking up speed.
I put myself in position to tackle her to stop her slide, but as she approached I realized that she was traveling much too quickly to do so. She slid all the way down onto the apron at Ballroom, eventually coming to a stop and giving a "thumbs up." Amy and I picked up the equipment debris and brought it down to her. She strained her shoulder and some rib muscles, but was otherwise OK. We were all thankful that the incident didn't occur higher up, for she would have tumbled down the entire chute in the same way as the fall that killed an Alta patroller there last year.
As we stood there, out from Little Chute emerged Kingslug, still quite visibly shaken from the experience. It turns out that once he entered Main Chute he traversed across The Lawn back to Little Chute and descended via Little. :shock: I'm not quite sure that he realized at the time that he was in some serious DFU terrain due to the cliffs below his traverse line, but no matter...he received some seriously congratulatory high-fives for his efforts. This was by far the biggest line he's ever skied, and returns to NY with the experience as a memory.
Nice guy.