Alta, UT 1/5/2008

[Admin]

Day 20: "It's like skiiing through orange sherbet."

Those are Tele Jon's words, not mine, but I couldn't come up with more accurately descriptive words for today than those. I'll let the Utah Avalanche Center explain:

The fire hose was pointed strait at the upper Cottonwoods overnight with snow totals of around a foot of graupel which measures near 30 percent density.

That's heavy stuff, heavy enough to create enormous slide potential. Interlodge was declared in Alta until 12:15. UDOT closed Little Cottonwood Canyon until 12:45. It was thus that I didn't board a lift until nearly 1:30 p.m. today along with Skidog, Tele Jon and SkiVT-L''er John Babyak who's visiting with his wife Nancy. Nancy was kind enough to let John tag along with us for the afternoon.

That new snow was weird stuff. In places like Wildcat, Greeley Hill and, of all places, Vail Ridge it skied smooth and creamy. In other spots like Eagle's Nest and Sugarloaf, however, it was nasty wind-whipped hell.

Round 2 of this massive Pacific storm arrives in the morning, and should bring with it much fluffier typical Utah snow. We'll see, for we'll be there.

One video shot on Vail Ridge:

<embed src="http://www.skimovies.com/videoplayer/mediaplayer.swf" width="640" height="500" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" flashvars="&displayheight=480&file=http://www.skimovies.com/flv/Alta_2008-01-05.avi.FLV&height=500&image=http://www.skimovies.com/flv/Alta_2008-01-05_thumb.jpg&width=640">

 

[icelanticskier]

foot o grauple-yowzers!
with fluffy stuff coming. sounds like a major right side up storm to me. interlodge is fun for about an hour cuz you know some major stuff is goin down but, it get's old fast. when i was workin at the alta lodge in jan 96' i was interlodge for almost 3 days straight for a storm that dumped 11 feet in five days. was diggin out the truck and only found it cuz i dug 4 feet down and heard my voile shovel hit the top of the cap.
i'll be out from jan 21-30 to ski 9 days while my girl is at the OR show. will probably spend most time between mt raymond and usa bowl in big and white, pink, redpine and maybird in little. snake creek and upper wolve bowl are potentials also. if it snows at all i'll be at solitude or pow mow.
looking forward to being back home for a bit.
rog

 

[Admin]

i'll be out from jan 21-30 to ski 9 days while my girl is at the OR show. will probably spend most time between mt raymond and usa bowl in big and white, pink, redpine and maybird in little. snake creek and upper wolve bowl are potentials also. if it snows at all i'll be at solitude or pow mow.
looking forward to being back home for a bit.
rog

Until my avi knowledge deepens I pretty much stay in-bounds or near-bounds at this time of year, saving the BC for spring when things stabilize a bit. Should you decide to slum it with a lift, give me a shout while you're here. I'll be at OR as well, so if you're doing the Backcountry Base Camp day at Snowbasin with your GF let me know.

 

[icelanticskier]

will do, i'll more than likely be at snowbasin for sure with les as that's her plan and i haven't skied there since it was a just a few rickety doubles and a grain silo layed down horizontal for a warming hut.
rog