Day 9: Snow, wind and lightning (but no bears), oh my!
I had commented before heading up that Friday would be a wet, wild and woolly day. I was spot on.
We started the day with 8" of incredibly wet, dense and creamy new snow that fell on the warm side of the storm. The snow line was at ~7000 feet, just below Snowbird's base. It skied incredibly well, but near the 8,530' base of Alta you could feel a noticeable change in the snow's consistency. That's where it turned to absolute lead. Above that, however, it was dreamy creamy.
We broke for lunch at around 11:30 p.m. At noon, we were standing outside Watson Shelter when a flash of lightning and rumble of thunder occurred less than a second apart. Moments later, Alta officials stopped loading all lifts.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZKHNr3ZPEY[/video]
We opted to wait it out at Watson's. Within a few minutes we were Interlodged.
Folks in the base area weren't Interlodged; many left, especially because the road was going to close at 1:30 p.m. In that 90 minutes that the lifts were closed, another 5-6" of new snow fell. Once they let us back out of the building, we had a fresh canvas to start laying tracks in all over again.
The lightning had marked the arrival of the cold front. The new snow was significantly lighter and fluffier than what fell overnight Thursday night. With few left to ski it, and after ASP chose to not reopen the High Traverse after lunch, we stuck to Wildcat for a seemingly non-stop succession of spectacular Kitty laps. We actually picked up 8" of new snow in 3 hours. To say that it was "good" would be a dramatic understatement!
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukmIL3NCTW4[/video]
I had commented before heading up that Friday would be a wet, wild and woolly day. I was spot on.
We started the day with 8" of incredibly wet, dense and creamy new snow that fell on the warm side of the storm. The snow line was at ~7000 feet, just below Snowbird's base. It skied incredibly well, but near the 8,530' base of Alta you could feel a noticeable change in the snow's consistency. That's where it turned to absolute lead. Above that, however, it was dreamy creamy.
We broke for lunch at around 11:30 p.m. At noon, we were standing outside Watson Shelter when a flash of lightning and rumble of thunder occurred less than a second apart. Moments later, Alta officials stopped loading all lifts.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZKHNr3ZPEY[/video]
We opted to wait it out at Watson's. Within a few minutes we were Interlodged.
Folks in the base area weren't Interlodged; many left, especially because the road was going to close at 1:30 p.m. In that 90 minutes that the lifts were closed, another 5-6" of new snow fell. Once they let us back out of the building, we had a fresh canvas to start laying tracks in all over again.
The lightning had marked the arrival of the cold front. The new snow was significantly lighter and fluffier than what fell overnight Thursday night. With few left to ski it, and after ASP chose to not reopen the High Traverse after lunch, we stuck to Wildcat for a seemingly non-stop succession of spectacular Kitty laps. We actually picked up 8" of new snow in 3 hours. To say that it was "good" would be a dramatic understatement!
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukmIL3NCTW4[/video]
