Day 52: Timing is everything.
Kingslug arrived last night, and together with Mira, Sima and The Other Bobby D we sat in the Red Iguana last night swapping ski tales. The others were planning their morning plundering powder on the slopes.
A last-minute decision at 7:40 this morning brought me to Little Cottonwood Canyon instead of work. I mean, really...I have two good friends staying with me, Kingslug is in town, there's 50 inches of snow yet to be skied (neither Alta nor Snowbird opened yesterday), and the sunset of the season is nearing. Put all of those together and it was a no-brainer.
We went over to The Other Bobby D's winter home between Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons to wait for the road to open, which it did promptly at 8:45. We quickly packed up and hit the road, arriving at the Wildcat lot at around 9:20. En route I phoned Kingslug -- he was of course unaware that I was skiing, but he was also unaware that the road had opened. :shock: I mean, c'mon, man...you made a last minute decision to fly out here just for this storm. In that situation I would've been in line at 8:00!
We booted up at the truck and Mira and Sima bought AltaBird tickets to provide the ability to play back and forth across the border now that the UTA Ski Buses are done for the season. Sugarloaf, Cecret and Supreme were closed all morning (Supreme stayed that way as far as I know), so everyone was crammed onto Collins and Wildcat (and I'm sure a few visitors were on Sunnyside, too). With something like 97 inches in a week, and a total of 50 inches since Alta was last open, Collins had a 15 minute line, Wildcat somewhat less. We headed for Wildcat as Kingslug called -- he was still on Wasatch in front of the firehouse :roll: .
Excellent. Heavy, but excellent. It was obvious that the wind cranked through much of the storm. But everything was soft and silent -- mostly cut up with some true untracked here and there. We lapped it twice.
By this time I was down to skiing in only a sweater, it was that warm. We endured the Collins line with the hope that Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder would open by the time we got up there. It opened sometime around the time we boarded the chair, but we found plenty of untracked on the early lines in Ballroom as everyone seemed to be headed further out toward Baldy Shoulder.
Once that was done we were ready to head over to Snowbird as by that time they had Peruvian, the Tram and Gadzoom open. It was 11:30. We were going to ski a condo run but our little stash was available for the taking and absolutely, positively no one had been out there. One person entered 20 feet ahead of us but went way, wide left to a completely different part of the hill. We had the whole stash to ourselves. Unlike the snow in Wildcat and in Ballroom, this stuff was chest deep and absolute fluff as the wind never hit it.
The line on the Tram was absolutely insane, wrapping all the way around the building. Unwilling to wait in that line we boarded Peruvian instead. North Chute has finally filled in and it looked good, but as we traversed over we realized why -- the gate was closed. We instead headed down Silver Fox to Cretin Chute, and out across Anderson's all the way to The Wave. Finding The Wave tracked out, we instead skied the west-facing aspens, finding untracked back down to Gadzoom.
Gad 2 and Little Cloud were now open, but everything to skier's left of Regulator (i.e., all of Road to Provo and everything accessed from it and below it) was still closed. However, there were two patrollers dropping charges on the Bass Benches, and two more heading into the Rasta Chutes to dislodge wind drifts in there. We figured that it had to be nearing opening time, so we headed up Little Cloud despite the enormous line that I'd estimate at 20 minutes or so.
We got to the top and were contemplating our options when we saw two patrollers head from the patrol shack out toward Road to Provo. This was the signal we needed. We headed toward the gate where about 30 people were waiting just as the patroller dropped the rope!
Road to Provo didn't get plowed overnight, which in retrospect was a good thing as instead folks were traversing out across an even slope. Folks formed two or three lines, and The Other Bobby D took a high line and I a low one such that we managed to pass virtually everyone ahead of us. We were now first in line!
No time to stop for photos. As we went through the gate we all agreed to simply meet at Little Cloud. About halfway to Mark Malou Fork I dropped in to skier's right of the Wave (the other one) without any hesitation. We bombed down through absolutely consistent, absolutely untracked dense snow. I popped up over the Wave and prepared to head toward a chute directly above the bend on Mark Malou when a couple came from my right and paused to regroup. I didn't stop, I continued past them. Upon seeing this the male in the couple started skating madly downhill to enter the chute ahead of me, skied across my skis and knocked me to the ground...just to make it into the chute first. Honestly, for all the complaining about the aggro attitude at Alta on a powder day I've never witnessed anything close to this jackass' behavior. Another skier dropped a ledge and landed on Mira. Amy got hit, too. Looking back up toward Road to Provo afterward, there were 50 or 60 gradually descending traverse lines across the bowl where people tried to get ahead of anyone they could, ruining for everyone behind us the powder experience that we had enjoyed. There's just no excuse for such boorish behavior. This was a total $hitshow.
We took one more lap out there before everything was completely trashed, but this time we had to go all the way out to the Bass Benches to find anything resembling untracked snow.
It was now 2:20, and time to head back to Alta. Mineral Basin would never open today, so there was only one way home.
There was, however, no way that I was getting in that Tram line, so we rode Little Cloud and bootpacked up to Hidden Peak. We then headed out the Peruvian ridgeline and booted up to the High Baldy Traverse. We were shocked to find the Armpit gate open, as we figured that we'd have to follow the ropeline down to Doorknob or Keyhole, so even at 3 p.m. we managed to find untracked turns en route back home.
By now I was spent. We settled into the sunshine on the GMD patio for beer and a pizza (we never stopped for lunch, and I forgot my breakfast on The Other Bobby D's kitchen counter in our haste to get out of there when the road opened).
Today was Mira and Sima's last day of the season, so they headed back up to ski groomers until after the lifts closed.
For tomorrow, Mineral Basin at Snowbird and Supreme at Alta never opened today, and thus should still be quite good. Backside opened during the course of today but had already been baked by that point.
Kingslug arrived last night, and together with Mira, Sima and The Other Bobby D we sat in the Red Iguana last night swapping ski tales. The others were planning their morning plundering powder on the slopes.
A last-minute decision at 7:40 this morning brought me to Little Cottonwood Canyon instead of work. I mean, really...I have two good friends staying with me, Kingslug is in town, there's 50 inches of snow yet to be skied (neither Alta nor Snowbird opened yesterday), and the sunset of the season is nearing. Put all of those together and it was a no-brainer.
We went over to The Other Bobby D's winter home between Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons to wait for the road to open, which it did promptly at 8:45. We quickly packed up and hit the road, arriving at the Wildcat lot at around 9:20. En route I phoned Kingslug -- he was of course unaware that I was skiing, but he was also unaware that the road had opened. :shock: I mean, c'mon, man...you made a last minute decision to fly out here just for this storm. In that situation I would've been in line at 8:00!
We booted up at the truck and Mira and Sima bought AltaBird tickets to provide the ability to play back and forth across the border now that the UTA Ski Buses are done for the season. Sugarloaf, Cecret and Supreme were closed all morning (Supreme stayed that way as far as I know), so everyone was crammed onto Collins and Wildcat (and I'm sure a few visitors were on Sunnyside, too). With something like 97 inches in a week, and a total of 50 inches since Alta was last open, Collins had a 15 minute line, Wildcat somewhat less. We headed for Wildcat as Kingslug called -- he was still on Wasatch in front of the firehouse :roll: .
Excellent. Heavy, but excellent. It was obvious that the wind cranked through much of the storm. But everything was soft and silent -- mostly cut up with some true untracked here and there. We lapped it twice.
By this time I was down to skiing in only a sweater, it was that warm. We endured the Collins line with the hope that Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder would open by the time we got up there. It opened sometime around the time we boarded the chair, but we found plenty of untracked on the early lines in Ballroom as everyone seemed to be headed further out toward Baldy Shoulder.
Once that was done we were ready to head over to Snowbird as by that time they had Peruvian, the Tram and Gadzoom open. It was 11:30. We were going to ski a condo run but our little stash was available for the taking and absolutely, positively no one had been out there. One person entered 20 feet ahead of us but went way, wide left to a completely different part of the hill. We had the whole stash to ourselves. Unlike the snow in Wildcat and in Ballroom, this stuff was chest deep and absolute fluff as the wind never hit it.
The line on the Tram was absolutely insane, wrapping all the way around the building. Unwilling to wait in that line we boarded Peruvian instead. North Chute has finally filled in and it looked good, but as we traversed over we realized why -- the gate was closed. We instead headed down Silver Fox to Cretin Chute, and out across Anderson's all the way to The Wave. Finding The Wave tracked out, we instead skied the west-facing aspens, finding untracked back down to Gadzoom.
Gad 2 and Little Cloud were now open, but everything to skier's left of Regulator (i.e., all of Road to Provo and everything accessed from it and below it) was still closed. However, there were two patrollers dropping charges on the Bass Benches, and two more heading into the Rasta Chutes to dislodge wind drifts in there. We figured that it had to be nearing opening time, so we headed up Little Cloud despite the enormous line that I'd estimate at 20 minutes or so.
We got to the top and were contemplating our options when we saw two patrollers head from the patrol shack out toward Road to Provo. This was the signal we needed. We headed toward the gate where about 30 people were waiting just as the patroller dropped the rope!
Road to Provo didn't get plowed overnight, which in retrospect was a good thing as instead folks were traversing out across an even slope. Folks formed two or three lines, and The Other Bobby D took a high line and I a low one such that we managed to pass virtually everyone ahead of us. We were now first in line!
No time to stop for photos. As we went through the gate we all agreed to simply meet at Little Cloud. About halfway to Mark Malou Fork I dropped in to skier's right of the Wave (the other one) without any hesitation. We bombed down through absolutely consistent, absolutely untracked dense snow. I popped up over the Wave and prepared to head toward a chute directly above the bend on Mark Malou when a couple came from my right and paused to regroup. I didn't stop, I continued past them. Upon seeing this the male in the couple started skating madly downhill to enter the chute ahead of me, skied across my skis and knocked me to the ground...just to make it into the chute first. Honestly, for all the complaining about the aggro attitude at Alta on a powder day I've never witnessed anything close to this jackass' behavior. Another skier dropped a ledge and landed on Mira. Amy got hit, too. Looking back up toward Road to Provo afterward, there were 50 or 60 gradually descending traverse lines across the bowl where people tried to get ahead of anyone they could, ruining for everyone behind us the powder experience that we had enjoyed. There's just no excuse for such boorish behavior. This was a total $hitshow.
We took one more lap out there before everything was completely trashed, but this time we had to go all the way out to the Bass Benches to find anything resembling untracked snow.
It was now 2:20, and time to head back to Alta. Mineral Basin would never open today, so there was only one way home.
There was, however, no way that I was getting in that Tram line, so we rode Little Cloud and bootpacked up to Hidden Peak. We then headed out the Peruvian ridgeline and booted up to the High Baldy Traverse. We were shocked to find the Armpit gate open, as we figured that we'd have to follow the ropeline down to Doorknob or Keyhole, so even at 3 p.m. we managed to find untracked turns en route back home.
By now I was spent. We settled into the sunshine on the GMD patio for beer and a pizza (we never stopped for lunch, and I forgot my breakfast on The Other Bobby D's kitchen counter in our haste to get out of there when the road opened).
Today was Mira and Sima's last day of the season, so they headed back up to ski groomers until after the lifts closed.
For tomorrow, Mineral Basin at Snowbird and Supreme at Alta never opened today, and thus should still be quite good. Backside opened during the course of today but had already been baked by that point.
I didn't read that sentence.
