Day 21: Busiest day of the season
At least of the days that I've been there. I knew it the minute that I hit stop-and-go on Wasatch Boulevard all the way back to the firehouse, just from the merge of 9400 S and Little Cottonwood Canyon road. Not due to snow, not due to chain check...just due to the merge of skier traffic. As a result I pulled into the parking lot 15 minutes late, and Amy was even a bit further behind me. Bobby was hosting Abby and Colin from MRG, and as they were ready to go we sent them out for a first run while the rest waiting for me to boot up.
Skidog, Amy, Marc_C, Tele Jon and I all ventured outside. The pre-opening line on Collins hadn't shrunk at all. We waited. And waited. We eventually gave up on Bobby and crew, meaning that it was around 10 am by the time we finally got to the top of Collins. Of course, the powder was already getting shralped pretty good.
There were still some untracked shots on West Rustler, so we hit that up first. The 13 inches that fell overnight felt a lot lighter than the 7-8% that the avi center reported, and it skied exceptionally well, but after standing around so long in low single digits at 8,500 feet, and skiing below zero in the shade at 10,500 feet, it was damned cold. I was filming and my hand went numb, but my gloved left hand went numb, too. Marc_C's hands were "dangerously cold," by his own account, and he went in after one run to thaw out. He later held up a white salt shaker and said that's what his hands looked like. The rest of us opted to stay out on the hill, but by pulling my fingers out of my glove and making a fist during the second Collins liftline my hands began to thaw and hit that excruciatingly painful stage.
Our second run was down Greeley Hill, which still held untracked snow between the tracked-up lines. We also scored some great (but short) untracked turns on Vail Ridge (had to hit it, as long as we were on Sunnyside). We headed up Supreme when the Challenger gate was about to open (and I believe Catherine's, too), but the wind had hammered the upper half pretty hard, and it was even colder up there so we didn't wait around for those gates to open.
After lunch we headed back to Christmas Tree, but I just wasn't "feeling it" by that point, and opted to head home at 1:15 instead.
I wandered around town before heading down canyon, and there wasn't a parking space to be found -- not in the Wildcat Lot, not in the Albion Lot, not in the Grizzly Lot, or even anywhere along the road. Despite all of this the only true liftlines we found were on Collins -- I never got on Wildcat, but Supreme, Sugarloaf and even Sunnyside were all 90 seconds or less.
Today's video:
[skitube2]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/modules/crpVideo/pnmedia/videos/1231039889_2009-01-03_Alta.flv[/skitube2]
socal likely made a good call for Snowbasin today. Not only did he miss the crowds, but as Snowbasin is considerably lower in elevation the temperatures would have been far more comfortable. Really, it was most brutal today above 9,500 feet, which is higher than Snowbasin's lifts. In fact, the upper terminals of Snowbasin's lifts aren't much higher than the base of Alta, where things were actually somewhat comfortable by late morning. The only badly wind-affected snow we skied today was above 10,000 feet on Supreme, so he likely missed out on that, too.
My wife hasn't skied yet this year. With temperatures in the forecast for tomorrow even colder, I think that I'll opt to take her to PCMR for Sunday. The Kid said the place was surprisingly uncrowded today, and if I'm going to cruise groomers with her they're a good 2,000 feet lower than Alta's. Her tolerance for cold is much lower than even mine, and the lower mountain at Alta was about the only reasonably comfortable place today. I also have a ticket that I can give her, which is a significant factor to consider as well. We'll go up mid-morning, which suits her better than an alpine start, and our later start will give the morning air a chance to warm up from the overnight lows. Sunday will be a lazy day spent cruising with family.
At least of the days that I've been there. I knew it the minute that I hit stop-and-go on Wasatch Boulevard all the way back to the firehouse, just from the merge of 9400 S and Little Cottonwood Canyon road. Not due to snow, not due to chain check...just due to the merge of skier traffic. As a result I pulled into the parking lot 15 minutes late, and Amy was even a bit further behind me. Bobby was hosting Abby and Colin from MRG, and as they were ready to go we sent them out for a first run while the rest waiting for me to boot up.
Skidog, Amy, Marc_C, Tele Jon and I all ventured outside. The pre-opening line on Collins hadn't shrunk at all. We waited. And waited. We eventually gave up on Bobby and crew, meaning that it was around 10 am by the time we finally got to the top of Collins. Of course, the powder was already getting shralped pretty good.
There were still some untracked shots on West Rustler, so we hit that up first. The 13 inches that fell overnight felt a lot lighter than the 7-8% that the avi center reported, and it skied exceptionally well, but after standing around so long in low single digits at 8,500 feet, and skiing below zero in the shade at 10,500 feet, it was damned cold. I was filming and my hand went numb, but my gloved left hand went numb, too. Marc_C's hands were "dangerously cold," by his own account, and he went in after one run to thaw out. He later held up a white salt shaker and said that's what his hands looked like. The rest of us opted to stay out on the hill, but by pulling my fingers out of my glove and making a fist during the second Collins liftline my hands began to thaw and hit that excruciatingly painful stage.
Our second run was down Greeley Hill, which still held untracked snow between the tracked-up lines. We also scored some great (but short) untracked turns on Vail Ridge (had to hit it, as long as we were on Sunnyside). We headed up Supreme when the Challenger gate was about to open (and I believe Catherine's, too), but the wind had hammered the upper half pretty hard, and it was even colder up there so we didn't wait around for those gates to open.
After lunch we headed back to Christmas Tree, but I just wasn't "feeling it" by that point, and opted to head home at 1:15 instead.
I wandered around town before heading down canyon, and there wasn't a parking space to be found -- not in the Wildcat Lot, not in the Albion Lot, not in the Grizzly Lot, or even anywhere along the road. Despite all of this the only true liftlines we found were on Collins -- I never got on Wildcat, but Supreme, Sugarloaf and even Sunnyside were all 90 seconds or less.
Today's video:
[skitube2]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/modules/crpVideo/pnmedia/videos/1231039889_2009-01-03_Alta.flv[/skitube2]
socal likely made a good call for Snowbasin today. Not only did he miss the crowds, but as Snowbasin is considerably lower in elevation the temperatures would have been far more comfortable. Really, it was most brutal today above 9,500 feet, which is higher than Snowbasin's lifts. In fact, the upper terminals of Snowbasin's lifts aren't much higher than the base of Alta, where things were actually somewhat comfortable by late morning. The only badly wind-affected snow we skied today was above 10,000 feet on Supreme, so he likely missed out on that, too.
My wife hasn't skied yet this year. With temperatures in the forecast for tomorrow even colder, I think that I'll opt to take her to PCMR for Sunday. The Kid said the place was surprisingly uncrowded today, and if I'm going to cruise groomers with her they're a good 2,000 feet lower than Alta's. Her tolerance for cold is much lower than even mine, and the lower mountain at Alta was about the only reasonably comfortable place today. I also have a ticket that I can give her, which is a significant factor to consider as well. We'll go up mid-morning, which suits her better than an alpine start, and our later start will give the morning air a chance to warm up from the overnight lows. Sunday will be a lazy day spent cruising with family.
