Alta, UT 03/31/09

[jamesdeluxe]

I met Pat, Mira, and Sima for a go at Alta this morning. The website is now reporting 10 inches of new snow, but I'm not sure how much of it came today. I'd guess 3-4 inches. Collins didn't open until 9:25 and we were on it a few minutes later. The first two hours or so were great; we scored a bunch of nice knee-deep untracked runs in Supreme Bowl (don't ask me for individual names) and Catherine's.

Sima:

Me on Supreme Challenge:

But as the day wore on, the light got flatter, the winds picked up, and we had a tough time finding clean goods. Too bad, as I'm sure they were hiding somewhere. A few times, we'd see a nice shot from the lift, but ended up picking our way across the wrong traverse to find everything pretty well plundered. We've discussed extensively how PhD-level knowledge of stashes is key at Alta, and this was Exhibit A, because there weren't that many people there today. Ballroom and Baldy never opened.

At 2, the group wanted to go back to Supreme, but I thought they were barking up the wrong lift, so with my dead legs, I headed off by myself to the Sunnyside lift for a last shot at low-angle pow, Vail Ridge. Nobody had been there so I lapped it four times.

A great day, but Sima, Mira and I were spoiled from yesterday. After only three days here, I'm seething with a sense of entitlement.

 

[jasoncapecod]

james ..stop it your killing me

 

[Tony Crocker]

After only three days here, I'm seething with a sense of entitlement.

=D> =D> =D>
As far as I'm concerned, james deserves it for stepping up to the plate and booking this trip on short notice. If you're going to whine how much powder you don't get, this is a great way to fix the problem.

 

[flyover]

As far as I'm concerned, james deserves it for stepping up to the plate and booking this trip on short notice. If you're going to whine how much powder you don't get, this is a great way to fix the problem.

OK, somebody needs to school me as to how to do this without spending a gazillion dollars or a gazillion miles on the flights. Once or twice a winter the stars line up for me and provide good conditions and a promising forecast in SLC, a work schedule that would allow a couple of short-notice days off, and a yard-pass from my wife and daughter. The only problem is the short-notice MSP-SLC flights go for like $1200 or many times the number of miles that theoretically allow for a domestic round trip. This is true even if I'm willing to be flexible about the days that would make up a long "weekend." So what's the secret?

 

[socal]

As far as I'm concerned, james deserves it for stepping up to the plate and booking this trip on short notice. If you're going to whine how much powder you don't get, this is a great way to fix the problem.

OK, somebody needs to school me as to how to do this without spending a gazillion dollars or a gazillion miles on the flights. Once or twice a winter the stars line up for me and provide good conditions and a promising forecast in SLC, a work schedule that would allow a couple of short-notice days off, and a yard-pass from my wife and daughter. The only problem is the short-notice MSP-SLC flights go for like $1200 or many times the number of miles that theoretically allow for a domestic round trip. This is true even if I'm willing to be flexible about the days that would make up a long "weekend." So what's the secret?

Move to a different city or get lucky with a last minute cheap airfair? I'm considering coming out for the weekend. Flights from LAX are $250 r/t for Friday after work and returning Sunday at 8pm.

 

[Admin]

OK, somebody needs to school me as to how to do this without spending a gazillion dollars or a gazillion miles on the flights.

Really, flights are quite inexpensive these days. Domestic air travel is down 20% in the current economy (I heard that figure on the news just tonight) and airlines are struggling to fill planes. My wife had to fly home from Florida this weekend, and she booked a flight the night before for $139. However, she had to be creative -- it was $339 to fly to SLC, but $139 to fly to Vegas with a stopover in SLC. Of course she had the luxury of not checking bags, something that a skier can rarely do, but she simply de-boarded the plane in SLC.

I'm bummed that I won't have the chance to ski with James this trip, but I did have the pleasure of having him come over to the house tonight to join Mira and me for dinner (Sima had a 5 pm flight home). Good conversation, good food (although veggie James had to bring his own instead of have goat cheese-stuffed chicken), and good times. Great to see you, James!

Oh, and BTW, James that photo of you above is on a line called Supreme Challenge.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

OK, somebody needs to school me as to how to do this without spending a gazillion dollars or a gazillion miles on the flights.

As mentioned earlier, I was originally supposed to spend five days in the Adirondacks and/or Vermont, but when I saw the forecast for out west, I cashed in a 25,000-mile FF award less than a day before departure. Every flight, nonstop or otherwise, was available at that level. FYI, they hit you with a fee for any award flight booked less than two weeks ahead of time ($100), but as far as I'm concerned, that isn't much when you're getting an iron-clad guarantee of powder.

 

[rfarren]

After only three days here, I'm seething with a sense of entitlement.

=D> =D> =D>
As far as I'm concerned, james deserves it for stepping up to the plate and booking this trip on short notice. If you're going to whine how much powder you don't get, this is a great way to fix the problem.

Or you could schedule 2 weeks heli-skiing, that is if you're not worried about the price.

 

[rfarren]

Oddly enough had I not had my illness and subsequent surgery and made it out to whistler this winter the majority of my ski days would've been powder days. Three out out of four days in CO were powder days, and the fourth day I was able to find plenty of fresh untracked in the trees. If I had gone to whistler I would have gotten 3 feet of powder. The season would've totaled something like 8 out of 11 days. As it is, the majority of my days this year have been powder days... albeit I only got 5 days in.

 

[flyover]

I don't usually do to bad for airfare on pre-planned trips to SLC, its the short notice trips that I can never seem to get past the pipe dream stage.

I just did a quick search: $900 or 50-60,000 miles for anything in the next 6 days. Last time I looked early in the winter it was significantly worse.

I think the problem is the lack of competition on the route. Northworst is hubbed here in MSP. They control 88% of the gates and thus dominate the market share. Northworst is now really Delta, which also has a hub in SLC, of course.

Southwest finally entered the market here last month, but only to Chicago. I'm hoping they will expand their MSP service in the future.

 

[Tony Crocker]

It helps a lot to have Southwest (SoCal) or JetBlue (NYC area) be a big player in your home market. MSP is not that competitive; best I could do (and this was with over a month notice) was $391 for SLC-MSP-LAX. NASJA wanted us to fly to Duluth, which would have been another $100+ plus bag fees I didn't have to pay on Delta.

rfarren's comments illustrate the high volatility of snowfall on scheduled trips. I had a season like that in 1998-99 when I got powder on nearly every trip. 2007-08 started like that with nearly nonstop powder on my 2 Canadian trips, but then nada after mid-February. 2004-05 saw no powder in Canada but I had it on nearly all my Sierra weekends at late as May. There were so many seasons through 1996 where I had minimal powder that I started the cat-skiing to ensure at least some. The only direct control I have is over the local powder days at Baldy/Waterman. I got 2 of those this year (should have been 3) which is sadly above average for these parts.

 

[Harvey]

Hey James...what about today?