Day 16: Rare rime.
It's very unusual when Utah gets the conditions necessary to produce rime: high humidity, below freezing temps and fog. Today was one of those days.
The rain snow line sat right between the base elevations of Snowbird and Alta -- the bottom of Snowbird's tram was in the rain while it was barely snow at Goldminer's Daughter. Alta picked up 2" of snow overnight, but down low it was wallpaper paste. We therefore spent most of our time up high on Supreme.
Collins was a bit late in opening, however, as detachable grips refused to close securely on the cable. As a result we started our day with a couple of laps on Wildcat until Collins began loading. You could feel the snow getting heavier and wetter the lower on the mountain you went. Visibility was non-existent. As a result we took few photos today, save for a couple in Back 40 once we finally got onto Supreme.
By lunch time, however, the weather was beginning to break, which afforded some surreal views of Devil's Castle from Alf's.
On my fourth day in a row on skis, however, my legs simply had nothing left in them. There were also some issues that ensured that I got insufficient sleep at home last night. As a result, I was sitting in Alf's sipping coffee and trying to keep from getting horizontal on the table. We skied a couple of runs after lunch before I called it a day at 2 p.m., including one in Glory Hole when The Kid straightlined an absolutely insane looker's right entrance into Glory Hole, not burning speed until hitting the apron far below. He was going too damned fast to get an effective photo even at 2.3 fps, but here's the best I could do:
From that position, he essentially dropped 250 or so verts straight line before emerging from the chute and burning speed by carving high-speed arcs across the chopped up snow below. :shock: Special shout-out thanks to pro skier Jamey Parks for loaning The Kid a pair of Salomon Rockers. With dimensions of 147-127-137mm and a 192cm length, they have a ridiculous 48.5m turning radius, yet they gave the stability for a young gun like The Kid to go big today.
It was actually a day for bumping into skiing celebs. Besides Jamey's generous nature, we also spotted Dylan Crossman at the base of Wildcat and Jamie Pierre skiing with his little girl from the top of Sugarloaf over to the Taliban Checkpoint into Snowbird's Mineral Basin.
When I quit at 2 p.m., The Kid took two more runs -- one on Backside with Bobby Danger and the other alone on High Boy -- while I snapped a couple of photos from the parking lot.
The sad part is that despite the two extra runs, I barely had time to take my boots off and snap those two photos before The Kid showed up.
It's very unusual when Utah gets the conditions necessary to produce rime: high humidity, below freezing temps and fog. Today was one of those days.
The rain snow line sat right between the base elevations of Snowbird and Alta -- the bottom of Snowbird's tram was in the rain while it was barely snow at Goldminer's Daughter. Alta picked up 2" of snow overnight, but down low it was wallpaper paste. We therefore spent most of our time up high on Supreme.
Collins was a bit late in opening, however, as detachable grips refused to close securely on the cable. As a result we started our day with a couple of laps on Wildcat until Collins began loading. You could feel the snow getting heavier and wetter the lower on the mountain you went. Visibility was non-existent. As a result we took few photos today, save for a couple in Back 40 once we finally got onto Supreme.
By lunch time, however, the weather was beginning to break, which afforded some surreal views of Devil's Castle from Alf's.
On my fourth day in a row on skis, however, my legs simply had nothing left in them. There were also some issues that ensured that I got insufficient sleep at home last night. As a result, I was sitting in Alf's sipping coffee and trying to keep from getting horizontal on the table. We skied a couple of runs after lunch before I called it a day at 2 p.m., including one in Glory Hole when The Kid straightlined an absolutely insane looker's right entrance into Glory Hole, not burning speed until hitting the apron far below. He was going too damned fast to get an effective photo even at 2.3 fps, but here's the best I could do:
From that position, he essentially dropped 250 or so verts straight line before emerging from the chute and burning speed by carving high-speed arcs across the chopped up snow below. :shock: Special shout-out thanks to pro skier Jamey Parks for loaning The Kid a pair of Salomon Rockers. With dimensions of 147-127-137mm and a 192cm length, they have a ridiculous 48.5m turning radius, yet they gave the stability for a young gun like The Kid to go big today.
It was actually a day for bumping into skiing celebs. Besides Jamey's generous nature, we also spotted Dylan Crossman at the base of Wildcat and Jamie Pierre skiing with his little girl from the top of Sugarloaf over to the Taliban Checkpoint into Snowbird's Mineral Basin.
When I quit at 2 p.m., The Kid took two more runs -- one on Backside with Bobby Danger and the other alone on High Boy -- while I snapped a couple of photos from the parking lot.
The sad part is that despite the two extra runs, I barely had time to take my boots off and snap those two photos before The Kid showed up.
