Days 26 & 27: A weekend full of surprises.
Wow, I'm cooked. Skied until 4 p.m. today, which those who ski with me know is a very, very late last run for me. But was a whole weekend leading up to that.
Saturday dawned sunny and pleasantly warm. Many of the usual suspects were present, plus Kingslug and Andy, visiting from NYC. It wasn't until later today that I learned that Kingslug didn't previously know Andy, but rather they met skiing Alta earlier in the week. That goes a long way to explaining why Andy was so pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of Utah locals, but that will make more sense as this report develops.
I was toting a pair of Salomon Quest 12s, a new 120-flex alpine/randonée boot for 2010-11 that we're testing. I lasted 2 runs on them, for try as I might I couldn't flex them. I spent the entirety of both runs with my weight on my heels. I'm going to try to get my hands on the Pebax version, which is somewhat softer, but in the meantime I had Perry, one of the Alta young bucks who's 60 lb heavier than my 147-lb featherweight frame and half my age try them on Sunday, and he absolutely adored them. I suspect that I'll feel the same way about the softer version, for they have interchangeable AT/DIN soles and are Dynafit compatible, but for now those Quest 12s are simply out of my league. They've got a roomy heel pocket and an enormous toe box, for those in need of volume, and they're surprisingly light for such a beefy boot. I sat out a run to grab my Garmont Endorphins, pull the liners, swap footbeds and get back into my comfort zone before rejoining the gang.
It's difficult otherwise reporting on Saturday, as after today Saturday's somewhat of a blur. I do recall Kingslug smiling, Andy following, and blue skies. I remember Andy wigging out at Piss Pass, and soft, chalky runs down Garbage Chute and Greeley Slot. Oh, and taking in the enormity of the slide on Eddie's High Nowhere that ran from a massive crown at the top all the way to Little Cottonwood Creek at the base of Backside.
As a result, Backside is still closed since the seven-foot storm a week ago. Despite the Eddie's and High Greeley slides, both of which are visible in that photo, 16 bombs that I counted failed to dislodge anything else on Backside.
Amy organized a birthday dinner for me at Tiburon, something for which I'm enormously grateful. We had a table of 10, including Powderqueen, who arrived Saturday afternoon, and Kingslug and Andy. Andy had been staying at the Peruvian, but had an 11:30 p.m. departing flight. I told him to cancel Canyon Transport, and picked him up at the UTA Ski Bus, brought him back to the house for a drink, brought him with me to the restaurant and then brought him to the airport afterward. Knowing now that he was unacquainted with anyone until this week, no wonder he thought the locals were so friendly! :lol:
Sunday we awoke to a surprise powder day. This disturbance wasn't supposed to do much, and the 5:30 a.m. report included 4 inches of new, but the snow continued at varying intensities throughout the day and in the end I'm guessing it dropped about 8" of fluffy snow. Visibility was limited as a result, so after a few Wildcat laps (including an absolutely divine untracked Restaurant Row) we headed for Supreme and pretty much stayed there most of the day, finding the untracked goods in some of Catherine's Area's more obscure pitches despite a lemming line of people hiking out there:
And we just kept scoring in near Catherine's, Calf Rope, Tower 12 Chute, The Bears, White Squaw, etc. Supreme seemed to do slightly better on new snowfall than the rest of the mountain, which isn't unusual at all, so it was likely a bit more than 8" up there. On anything previously exposed to the sun the trick was to hit low angle terrain to keep from punching through to the older snow underneath for the new snow was quite light and dry. North-facing steeps still skied exceptionally fine regardless.
Three friends, life-long Utahans, were taking their first ski lessons ever at Park City Mountain Resort this afternoon through the resort's StartNOW program. I was supposed to head over there this afternoon at the conclusion of their lesson to observe and take a run or two with them, but the skiing was so good at Alta today that I opted to stay. Stephan has now learned his first lesson of skiing: there are no friends on a powder day.
In fact, by the time lunch wrapped up at 2 p.m. I was ready to get horizontal, but headed out for what was planned to be another run or two up on Supreme before heading home. I got a second wind, though, and we wrapped up the day getting low angle untracked off both the Summer Road and Vail Ridge in Albion Basin -- areas often overlooked by the hordes in their powder quest.
Another fine weekend in the Wasatch!
Wow, I'm cooked. Skied until 4 p.m. today, which those who ski with me know is a very, very late last run for me. But was a whole weekend leading up to that.
Saturday dawned sunny and pleasantly warm. Many of the usual suspects were present, plus Kingslug and Andy, visiting from NYC. It wasn't until later today that I learned that Kingslug didn't previously know Andy, but rather they met skiing Alta earlier in the week. That goes a long way to explaining why Andy was so pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of Utah locals, but that will make more sense as this report develops.
I was toting a pair of Salomon Quest 12s, a new 120-flex alpine/randonée boot for 2010-11 that we're testing. I lasted 2 runs on them, for try as I might I couldn't flex them. I spent the entirety of both runs with my weight on my heels. I'm going to try to get my hands on the Pebax version, which is somewhat softer, but in the meantime I had Perry, one of the Alta young bucks who's 60 lb heavier than my 147-lb featherweight frame and half my age try them on Sunday, and he absolutely adored them. I suspect that I'll feel the same way about the softer version, for they have interchangeable AT/DIN soles and are Dynafit compatible, but for now those Quest 12s are simply out of my league. They've got a roomy heel pocket and an enormous toe box, for those in need of volume, and they're surprisingly light for such a beefy boot. I sat out a run to grab my Garmont Endorphins, pull the liners, swap footbeds and get back into my comfort zone before rejoining the gang.
It's difficult otherwise reporting on Saturday, as after today Saturday's somewhat of a blur. I do recall Kingslug smiling, Andy following, and blue skies. I remember Andy wigging out at Piss Pass, and soft, chalky runs down Garbage Chute and Greeley Slot. Oh, and taking in the enormity of the slide on Eddie's High Nowhere that ran from a massive crown at the top all the way to Little Cottonwood Creek at the base of Backside.
As a result, Backside is still closed since the seven-foot storm a week ago. Despite the Eddie's and High Greeley slides, both of which are visible in that photo, 16 bombs that I counted failed to dislodge anything else on Backside.
Amy organized a birthday dinner for me at Tiburon, something for which I'm enormously grateful. We had a table of 10, including Powderqueen, who arrived Saturday afternoon, and Kingslug and Andy. Andy had been staying at the Peruvian, but had an 11:30 p.m. departing flight. I told him to cancel Canyon Transport, and picked him up at the UTA Ski Bus, brought him back to the house for a drink, brought him with me to the restaurant and then brought him to the airport afterward. Knowing now that he was unacquainted with anyone until this week, no wonder he thought the locals were so friendly! :lol:
Sunday we awoke to a surprise powder day. This disturbance wasn't supposed to do much, and the 5:30 a.m. report included 4 inches of new, but the snow continued at varying intensities throughout the day and in the end I'm guessing it dropped about 8" of fluffy snow. Visibility was limited as a result, so after a few Wildcat laps (including an absolutely divine untracked Restaurant Row) we headed for Supreme and pretty much stayed there most of the day, finding the untracked goods in some of Catherine's Area's more obscure pitches despite a lemming line of people hiking out there:
And we just kept scoring in near Catherine's, Calf Rope, Tower 12 Chute, The Bears, White Squaw, etc. Supreme seemed to do slightly better on new snowfall than the rest of the mountain, which isn't unusual at all, so it was likely a bit more than 8" up there. On anything previously exposed to the sun the trick was to hit low angle terrain to keep from punching through to the older snow underneath for the new snow was quite light and dry. North-facing steeps still skied exceptionally fine regardless.
Three friends, life-long Utahans, were taking their first ski lessons ever at Park City Mountain Resort this afternoon through the resort's StartNOW program. I was supposed to head over there this afternoon at the conclusion of their lesson to observe and take a run or two with them, but the skiing was so good at Alta today that I opted to stay. Stephan has now learned his first lesson of skiing: there are no friends on a powder day.
In fact, by the time lunch wrapped up at 2 p.m. I was ready to get horizontal, but headed out for what was planned to be another run or two up on Supreme before heading home. I got a second wind, though, and we wrapped up the day getting low angle untracked off both the Summer Road and Vail Ridge in Albion Basin -- areas often overlooked by the hordes in their powder quest.
Another fine weekend in the Wasatch!
