Day 64: Perfect.
With 18" of new snow I left work this morning for two hours of powder laps before returning to the desk job.
I couldn't have made a better decision. I managed to score 8th chair up Collins this morning with some folks visiting from Invermere, B.C. and arrived at the top just as patrol had opened the High Notch hike to Backside. As most others went some other way to descend, by my own quick calculation that meant that there were significantly fewer than 28 people ahead of me. \
/
That brutal little sidestep always kicks my butt, especially when people hot on your tail are frothing at the mouth, so it was an easy decision to drop onto an untracked High Yellow Trail as nearly everyone else hoofed out to High Notch proper. I figured that I'd make the saddle over to Backside at just about the same time that the young hotshots would make the Notch, and that turned out to be the right call as I was able to successfully stay just ahead of all but just a couple of the High Notch skiers and find my own little slice of heaven between the piles of avalanche debris.
Upper Backside, with my track on left. Hey Tony, that's what powder looks like.
Lower Backside (my track at left center)
That was easily the best run of my season thus far. Perfect snow depth (no bottoming out on the base at all -- I never felt it once). Perfect snow consistency (it had yet to be affected by sun or wind at all). Perfect untracked (by my definition of powder, not Crocker's whacked-out version). It was absolutely perfect.
Did I mention that it was perfect? :mrgreen:
I hooked up thereafter with Telejon, AmyZ and jojo_obrien. We arrived at the top of Collins right as ASP opened the Instructor (gravity) Traverse into Backside, and we were third, fourth and fifth through the gate, so we got another helping of fresh. Our third lap was through Susie's Trees. There was still plenty of untracked snow in Susie's as Alta was strangely devoid of people this morning. Chairs were ski-on and heading up the hill less than full. The vast majority of those who were there were headed out Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder, which had itself opened just five minutes before, so we made a strategic decision to head for Susie's instead.
For our fourth run we went through the Taliban Checkpoint and skied Sugar Cliffs in Snowbird's Mineral Basin for more untracked, although you had to sniff a little harder there to find clean lines.
I had to get back to work so I already planned to hike up to the loading station of Baldy Express to return to my truck at Alta. jojo took one look at the Mineral Basin Express line and did the same -- there were far more people there than at Alta this morning, but that comes as little surprise. jojo and I finished up with an untracked Greeley Bowl to wrap up my six-chairlift, five-powder-lap ski day. I skied off to work, and jojo skied back to Collins.
At +/- 130" our base is deeper now than it's been all season.
With 18" of new snow I left work this morning for two hours of powder laps before returning to the desk job.
I couldn't have made a better decision. I managed to score 8th chair up Collins this morning with some folks visiting from Invermere, B.C. and arrived at the top just as patrol had opened the High Notch hike to Backside. As most others went some other way to descend, by my own quick calculation that meant that there were significantly fewer than 28 people ahead of me. \
/That brutal little sidestep always kicks my butt, especially when people hot on your tail are frothing at the mouth, so it was an easy decision to drop onto an untracked High Yellow Trail as nearly everyone else hoofed out to High Notch proper. I figured that I'd make the saddle over to Backside at just about the same time that the young hotshots would make the Notch, and that turned out to be the right call as I was able to successfully stay just ahead of all but just a couple of the High Notch skiers and find my own little slice of heaven between the piles of avalanche debris.
Upper Backside, with my track on left. Hey Tony, that's what powder looks like.
Lower Backside (my track at left center)
That was easily the best run of my season thus far. Perfect snow depth (no bottoming out on the base at all -- I never felt it once). Perfect snow consistency (it had yet to be affected by sun or wind at all). Perfect untracked (by my definition of powder, not Crocker's whacked-out version). It was absolutely perfect.
Did I mention that it was perfect? :mrgreen:
I hooked up thereafter with Telejon, AmyZ and jojo_obrien. We arrived at the top of Collins right as ASP opened the Instructor (gravity) Traverse into Backside, and we were third, fourth and fifth through the gate, so we got another helping of fresh. Our third lap was through Susie's Trees. There was still plenty of untracked snow in Susie's as Alta was strangely devoid of people this morning. Chairs were ski-on and heading up the hill less than full. The vast majority of those who were there were headed out Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder, which had itself opened just five minutes before, so we made a strategic decision to head for Susie's instead.
For our fourth run we went through the Taliban Checkpoint and skied Sugar Cliffs in Snowbird's Mineral Basin for more untracked, although you had to sniff a little harder there to find clean lines.
I had to get back to work so I already planned to hike up to the loading station of Baldy Express to return to my truck at Alta. jojo took one look at the Mineral Basin Express line and did the same -- there were far more people there than at Alta this morning, but that comes as little surprise. jojo and I finished up with an untracked Greeley Bowl to wrap up my six-chairlift, five-powder-lap ski day. I skied off to work, and jojo skied back to Collins.
At +/- 130" our base is deeper now than it's been all season.
worthy reports with pics of "barely tracked" and lightly tracked" belie that claim.