For the past few weeks, Alta has been inhabited almost exclusively by locals, and it's been comfortable. For the past few days, Alta has been inhabited primarily by holiday visitors, and it's been comfortable. Today, however, was a powder day...and it was inhabited by both. I have never seen the place that packed.
I knew we were in trouble when the 6200 S exit was backed up for half a mile on I-215. I continued past to 2000 E, made a U-turn, and found an empty eastbound ramp. Wasatch Blvd was then backed up for half a mile of left-turning cars headed up BCC to Brighton/Solitude. The LCC traffic then bunched up by the fire station on Wasatch Blvd, creeping along at 0-5 mph all the way to Gate B on the LCC road, where it mysteriously opened up to 30. It took an hour to travel what normally takes 20-25 min.
It was just me and the kid today. Marc_C had a friend and his friend's son pull into town at 5 am after an all-night drive from Seattle, and they were clearly going to get a late start as his buddy caught up on some Zs. We made tentative plans to hook up at 12:30, but we were on the wrong side of the mountain in a healthy liftline at noon, and I called to cancel the meeting.
We were finally booted up and on the lift by 9:45. With that mass of people, things were getting tracked up quickly, and I was on a mission to find the freshest snow available. The storm total was 14 inches, but it was heavy, dense stuff at 11% -- not the typical Utah blower. It still skied exceedingly well, and our first run on Annie's was nearly untracked. The kid got better and better in powder as the day wore on, and by the end of the day was actually making pretty darned good turns.
For our second run we eschewed the growing liftline on Collins and opted instead for Wildcat, skiing down behind the site of the old Watson Shelter and then traversing out to Wildcat Face. By the time we got to the bottom we saw that Supreme had opened, so we braved the Collins liftline again to head over there, but not before being sidetracked to Yellow Trail and East Greeley, which required another lift ride on Sugarloaf, where the singles line got us on a chair in less than 5 minutes.
Riding the Sugarloaf chair, the gate to Cecret Saddle was closed as they finished up bomb work on Devil's Castle, but in the next 3 minutes, by the time we got back down to the gate it had opened. We were therefore among the first group of a half dozen or so skiers to head out the gate. Wowzers!! What timing! A totally untracked field of deep snow lay below us on Cecret Saddle, and my kid got his first taste of a truly virgin slope. Supreme could wait yet again, for we noodled our way down through Cabin Hill for a repeat on Cecret Saddle.
Now we had finally made it over to Supreme. What's up? Catherine's, of course. After the short hike we went way, way out to Last Chance, finding no more than a handful of tracks tracing the many acres out there. We dipped and dove through knee deep down the convoluted terrain before traversing out wide out of bounds onto the lower slopes of the southernmost reaches of the Patsy Marley ridge, laying our own set of tracks beside those of only a few others directly below the summit of Wolverine.
By now we were rapidly getting tired, and we figured that we had one run left in us. There are two rites of passage to skiing Alta: Main Chute, and High Rustler. The kid had knocked off the first on July 9th, and today we finished up with the second, leaving us with jittery quads as we walked back to the truck, where sonny boy rated this as his best ski day ever. Funny how a little untracked powder will do that.
I knew we were in trouble when the 6200 S exit was backed up for half a mile on I-215. I continued past to 2000 E, made a U-turn, and found an empty eastbound ramp. Wasatch Blvd was then backed up for half a mile of left-turning cars headed up BCC to Brighton/Solitude. The LCC traffic then bunched up by the fire station on Wasatch Blvd, creeping along at 0-5 mph all the way to Gate B on the LCC road, where it mysteriously opened up to 30. It took an hour to travel what normally takes 20-25 min.
It was just me and the kid today. Marc_C had a friend and his friend's son pull into town at 5 am after an all-night drive from Seattle, and they were clearly going to get a late start as his buddy caught up on some Zs. We made tentative plans to hook up at 12:30, but we were on the wrong side of the mountain in a healthy liftline at noon, and I called to cancel the meeting.
We were finally booted up and on the lift by 9:45. With that mass of people, things were getting tracked up quickly, and I was on a mission to find the freshest snow available. The storm total was 14 inches, but it was heavy, dense stuff at 11% -- not the typical Utah blower. It still skied exceedingly well, and our first run on Annie's was nearly untracked. The kid got better and better in powder as the day wore on, and by the end of the day was actually making pretty darned good turns.
For our second run we eschewed the growing liftline on Collins and opted instead for Wildcat, skiing down behind the site of the old Watson Shelter and then traversing out to Wildcat Face. By the time we got to the bottom we saw that Supreme had opened, so we braved the Collins liftline again to head over there, but not before being sidetracked to Yellow Trail and East Greeley, which required another lift ride on Sugarloaf, where the singles line got us on a chair in less than 5 minutes.
Riding the Sugarloaf chair, the gate to Cecret Saddle was closed as they finished up bomb work on Devil's Castle, but in the next 3 minutes, by the time we got back down to the gate it had opened. We were therefore among the first group of a half dozen or so skiers to head out the gate. Wowzers!! What timing! A totally untracked field of deep snow lay below us on Cecret Saddle, and my kid got his first taste of a truly virgin slope. Supreme could wait yet again, for we noodled our way down through Cabin Hill for a repeat on Cecret Saddle.
Now we had finally made it over to Supreme. What's up? Catherine's, of course. After the short hike we went way, way out to Last Chance, finding no more than a handful of tracks tracing the many acres out there. We dipped and dove through knee deep down the convoluted terrain before traversing out wide out of bounds onto the lower slopes of the southernmost reaches of the Patsy Marley ridge, laying our own set of tracks beside those of only a few others directly below the summit of Wolverine.
By now we were rapidly getting tired, and we figured that we had one run left in us. There are two rites of passage to skiing Alta: Main Chute, and High Rustler. The kid had knocked off the first on July 9th, and today we finished up with the second, leaving us with jittery quads as we walked back to the truck, where sonny boy rated this as his best ski day ever. Funny how a little untracked powder will do that.
