Day 22: Our sketchy snowpack.
I know that y'all are probably getting tired of only seeing trip reports from me of one resort, but honestly, I see little reason for myself personally to venture elsewhere yet this season, save for the occasional foray into Snowbird next door. Now that the weather is truly bright and sunny, though, you're able to see the full extent of our potentially deadly snowpack.
It sounded like the marines were once again unleashing today. ASP is understandably nervous after Monday's incident on the High T, but they've been working hard all week at getting remaining terrain reopened. That was Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder yesterday, and Backside today.
mrgskier upgraded the Snowbird tickets belonging to his entire family of 5 to ski Alta today, and I planned to hook up with them and rdwore, who arrived yesterday for his four-month winter in Utah. They were a bit slow getting going this morning, however, and on my first ride up Collins I bumped into Rex, a guy I know from a local radio station. So Rex and I spent the first few runs together on the groomers, and he joined me for my usual morning coffee at Baldy Brews. This morning was incredibly quiet, with all lifts literally ski-on, and when we arrived at Watson Shelter for our coffee there was only one other pair of skis in the rack outside. As the clock prepared to go from a.m. to p.m. I found a lift line or two, but never more than 5 to 10 minutes, an eminently acceptable amount of time considering that it's now the full-on holiday week.
While riding Supreme he wasn't interested in hiking out to Catherine's, so I struck out alone.
Shortly thereafter at about 11:30 I got the call from mrgskier and his group, and we all met up at the base of Supreme. We took multiple laps in lower Supreme Bowl, finding some lightly touched stashes in places where the natural fall line doesn't draw people in and deep loose sluff in High IQ. It was definitely worth the effort. I'm guessing that we inadvertently wigged out a couple of visitors already frozen in terror in High IQ when mrgskier, his son Cole and I came bombing through. :-$
We took a trip out the High Traverse to Greeley Bowl before a late lunch, and the T is definitely in far better shape today after a little prep work. By riding the lowest line the only rocks we encountered were on the far side of Piss Pass, which is admittedly taking a hammering. While we were eating at GMD, unbeknownst to us they finally opened Backside after what I believe was five days of continuous bombing. By the time we got there it was admittedly already spent, especially when about 70% of the acreage out there was covered in slide debris, but we found some nice turns out in Susie's Trees, good enough for a second helping before I left at 3:30.
Now that Backside is once again open we're back to nearly full operation once more. The only acres that are closed presently are in Devil's Castle, Baldy Chutes and upper Supreme Bowl (i.e., the Spiney Chutes).
I know that y'all are probably getting tired of only seeing trip reports from me of one resort, but honestly, I see little reason for myself personally to venture elsewhere yet this season, save for the occasional foray into Snowbird next door. Now that the weather is truly bright and sunny, though, you're able to see the full extent of our potentially deadly snowpack.
It sounded like the marines were once again unleashing today. ASP is understandably nervous after Monday's incident on the High T, but they've been working hard all week at getting remaining terrain reopened. That was Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder yesterday, and Backside today.
mrgskier upgraded the Snowbird tickets belonging to his entire family of 5 to ski Alta today, and I planned to hook up with them and rdwore, who arrived yesterday for his four-month winter in Utah. They were a bit slow getting going this morning, however, and on my first ride up Collins I bumped into Rex, a guy I know from a local radio station. So Rex and I spent the first few runs together on the groomers, and he joined me for my usual morning coffee at Baldy Brews. This morning was incredibly quiet, with all lifts literally ski-on, and when we arrived at Watson Shelter for our coffee there was only one other pair of skis in the rack outside. As the clock prepared to go from a.m. to p.m. I found a lift line or two, but never more than 5 to 10 minutes, an eminently acceptable amount of time considering that it's now the full-on holiday week.
While riding Supreme he wasn't interested in hiking out to Catherine's, so I struck out alone.
Shortly thereafter at about 11:30 I got the call from mrgskier and his group, and we all met up at the base of Supreme. We took multiple laps in lower Supreme Bowl, finding some lightly touched stashes in places where the natural fall line doesn't draw people in and deep loose sluff in High IQ. It was definitely worth the effort. I'm guessing that we inadvertently wigged out a couple of visitors already frozen in terror in High IQ when mrgskier, his son Cole and I came bombing through. :-$
We took a trip out the High Traverse to Greeley Bowl before a late lunch, and the T is definitely in far better shape today after a little prep work. By riding the lowest line the only rocks we encountered were on the far side of Piss Pass, which is admittedly taking a hammering. While we were eating at GMD, unbeknownst to us they finally opened Backside after what I believe was five days of continuous bombing. By the time we got there it was admittedly already spent, especially when about 70% of the acreage out there was covered in slide debris, but we found some nice turns out in Susie's Trees, good enough for a second helping before I left at 3:30.
Now that Backside is once again open we're back to nearly full operation once more. The only acres that are closed presently are in Devil's Castle, Baldy Chutes and upper Supreme Bowl (i.e., the Spiney Chutes).
