Day 9: I Crockered.
Yes, that's a verb. After leaving the house at 8:15 and stopping for a bagel I headed up the canyon, parked at Wildcat, unloaded the truck and schlepped into Goldminer's Daughter. It wasn't until I sat down to boot up that I realized that I was missing an essential component: boots.
I ate my bagel, noticing that Collins appeared to be down for the morning, and headed back home to retrieve them. By the time I got back Bobby Danger, Skidog and Pat were running laps on Wildcat, which had a 5-minute line with Collins still offline. I met them at the bottom and loaded the chair, only to get a third of the way up and the lift stopped. For 20 minutes. Eventually the lifties fired up the diesel backup and we crawled to the top, arriving a full three hours after I'd left the house this morning when it was finally time to take my first run of the day.
The lift problems were due to thick rime ice from the persistent cloud layer, a rare occurrence around these parts. Surprisingly, many aspects including Wildcat trees held thick, supportable creamy snow that really skied quite well. Many aspects lacked the rime crust if you simply thought about where you were going to ski.
Skidog, however, had had enough of the lift closures and left in a huff. With both Collins and Wildcat now closed we skied down to the transfer tow and made our way up Sunnyside and Cecret to Supreme, where the No. 9 trees held just the right snow and visibility. Any other day the lack of running lifts would've meant a huge line on Supreme, but Alta remains deserted for the season as locals remain at home. By our second run we skied right onto the chair, and we lapped No. 9 trees a couple of times before Bob and I made our way to Alf's for lunch while Pat headed home.
After lunch we boarded Sugarloaf after we made sure that they were loading it -- while watching from Alf's I watched a good 10-15 chairs go up empty before I actually spotted one with a body in it. Right as we were loading we found out why: the Germania Return was closed off due to the wind loading on East Baldy, so we had to make our way down Sugarloaf through the thick fog with no trees to add definition. It was skiing by braille, but with the perfectly smooth surfaces it really didn't matter. Gravy Boat was a dream with thick wind-sifted snow blown in, and a detour across the hill to lower Extrovert was an error in judgment as it held a slight zipper crust -- not enough to render it unskiable, but just enough that it wasn't what we were looking for.
Back across the Transfer Tow, Collins and Wildcat were now loading again, so we loaded Collins to head out the High T, an adventure of its own in zero visibility with some bony areas crossing Sunspot Ridge and again at the snow fence. We made our way slowly, eventually arriving at Piss Pass, and headed around to High Boy.
That, my friends, was the call of the day. Lacking the usual moguls, it was perfectly soft and smooth creamy snow from top to bottom. I ended the day on that high note.
Just one photo, and with visibility what it was it was taken indoors, not out:
Yes, that's a verb. After leaving the house at 8:15 and stopping for a bagel I headed up the canyon, parked at Wildcat, unloaded the truck and schlepped into Goldminer's Daughter. It wasn't until I sat down to boot up that I realized that I was missing an essential component: boots.
I ate my bagel, noticing that Collins appeared to be down for the morning, and headed back home to retrieve them. By the time I got back Bobby Danger, Skidog and Pat were running laps on Wildcat, which had a 5-minute line with Collins still offline. I met them at the bottom and loaded the chair, only to get a third of the way up and the lift stopped. For 20 minutes. Eventually the lifties fired up the diesel backup and we crawled to the top, arriving a full three hours after I'd left the house this morning when it was finally time to take my first run of the day.
The lift problems were due to thick rime ice from the persistent cloud layer, a rare occurrence around these parts. Surprisingly, many aspects including Wildcat trees held thick, supportable creamy snow that really skied quite well. Many aspects lacked the rime crust if you simply thought about where you were going to ski.
Skidog, however, had had enough of the lift closures and left in a huff. With both Collins and Wildcat now closed we skied down to the transfer tow and made our way up Sunnyside and Cecret to Supreme, where the No. 9 trees held just the right snow and visibility. Any other day the lack of running lifts would've meant a huge line on Supreme, but Alta remains deserted for the season as locals remain at home. By our second run we skied right onto the chair, and we lapped No. 9 trees a couple of times before Bob and I made our way to Alf's for lunch while Pat headed home.
After lunch we boarded Sugarloaf after we made sure that they were loading it -- while watching from Alf's I watched a good 10-15 chairs go up empty before I actually spotted one with a body in it. Right as we were loading we found out why: the Germania Return was closed off due to the wind loading on East Baldy, so we had to make our way down Sugarloaf through the thick fog with no trees to add definition. It was skiing by braille, but with the perfectly smooth surfaces it really didn't matter. Gravy Boat was a dream with thick wind-sifted snow blown in, and a detour across the hill to lower Extrovert was an error in judgment as it held a slight zipper crust -- not enough to render it unskiable, but just enough that it wasn't what we were looking for.
Back across the Transfer Tow, Collins and Wildcat were now loading again, so we loaded Collins to head out the High T, an adventure of its own in zero visibility with some bony areas crossing Sunspot Ridge and again at the snow fence. We made our way slowly, eventually arriving at Piss Pass, and headed around to High Boy.
That, my friends, was the call of the day. Lacking the usual moguls, it was perfectly soft and smooth creamy snow from top to bottom. I ended the day on that high note.
Just one photo, and with visibility what it was it was taken indoors, not out:
