Alta, UT 12/18/2016

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Day 11: Can someone go hit the thermostat?

Holy cow, it was cold! How cold? Here are the mid-mountain readings throughout the day:

Time ºF
17:00 0.0
16:00 0.0
15:00 0.0
14:00 1.0
13:00 -1.0
12:00 0.0
11:00 -3.0
10:00 -6.0
9:00 -8.0
8:00 -9.0
7:00 -9.0

We waited for the mercury to rise at least to zero. Bobby Danger, AmyZ and Telejon all showed up at 11:30. I made it by noon, shortly after ASP opened Backside and Baldy Shoulder. I couldn't find the others right away so I hooked up with JTran for a Backside. We then joined the others and hit Susie's, finding plenty of untracked remaining.

The others headed for the newly opened Mineral Basin at Snowbird for a couple of laps just before 3 p.m. I felt the temps starting to drop again shortly thereafter, and called it a day.

20161218_144144.jpg
 
Skied all day until 2:00...pretty cold in the morning..went in for a little while..managed to hit the Basin for a run..wasn't as epic as it could have been...avi debris all over the place...guess they dropped..a few million pounds of bombs...
Better runs in the Gad valley....
 
kingslug":3n1l6o2c said:
guess they dropped..a few million pounds of bombs...
How many years of ordnance do they have left? Europeans are always fascinated that U.S. ski areas detonate old bombs for avalanche mitigation.
 
jamesdeluxe":2gqcalfv said:
kingslug":2gqcalfv said:
guess they dropped..a few million pounds of bombs...
How many years of ordnance do they have left? Europeans are always fascinated that U.S. ski areas detonate old bombs for avalanche mitigation.

By and large avalanche control conducted by ski patrol in-bounds in LCC is done with bags of sodium nitrate, not shells (with a few exceptions -- East Castle, Baldy Shoulder, etc.). Most of the shells are launched by UDOT or by Alta/Snowbird patrols onto the south-facing side of LCC.
 
All I know is at 5AM the room would light up..then BOOM....which repeated for about an hour..then the smaller stuff could be heard.
 
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