Day 23: Skiing through a human pinball machine.
Today was the first day that truly felt busy this season. Not that it was really that crowded -- the Wildcat lot, for example, never overflowed, which it often does on a big powder day -- but all of the map readers who are presently out in full force were sticking to the primary groomers.
That was both good and bad. Good in that you could easily get away from them by simply leaving the groomed; bad in that getting to and from those quiet places at times felt downright dangerous. Today's visitors were truly unpredictable. You never knew when they'd zig when you'd think they'd zag. Devil's Elbow (which we used to get to Supreme) was a total crapshow, which I'll admit was not at all surprising. I hugged the edge and hoped for the best. I'm getting used to passing others on traverses, which I seldom feel compelled to do otherwise, although karma has already kicked me in the a$$ at least once for doing that.
The line on Collins grew so we moved over to Supreme. Once the liftline grew at Supreme (and Sugarloaf wasn't any better) we ventured over to Wildcat, where there were empty chairs going up the hill as even Collins had a short line by then. And go figure, the terrain in Wildcat was covered with beautifully soft, chalky snow. The groomer-skiing visitors don't know what they were missing!
As an aside, I had an interesting experience earlier this holiday week when one visitor, who was standing about 10 feet from the automatic sliding glass door into GMD, asked us, "Do you know how to get into this place?" :roll: I actually asked her to repeat the question to make sure that I heard correctly!
I skied today with Skidog and AmyZ, and lunched on the GMD patio with acquaintance Rodney, one of the few other locals actually skiing today. Then again, he's arranged his life in such a way to ski 5 or 6 days per week and still be financially secure at age ~50. =D> After lunch, however, we all decided to head down canyon and get away from the masses, for the snow isn't going to change much for the next week or so and tomorrow's another day.
On the way down canyon I gave a lift to a hitchiker who had to be at least 75 years old, another Alta regular. Where else would you see seniors hitching? And it took him the entire way down the canyon to tell me all about how he bagged a drunk woman in Albany in the 1960s.
Today was the first day that truly felt busy this season. Not that it was really that crowded -- the Wildcat lot, for example, never overflowed, which it often does on a big powder day -- but all of the map readers who are presently out in full force were sticking to the primary groomers.
That was both good and bad. Good in that you could easily get away from them by simply leaving the groomed; bad in that getting to and from those quiet places at times felt downright dangerous. Today's visitors were truly unpredictable. You never knew when they'd zig when you'd think they'd zag. Devil's Elbow (which we used to get to Supreme) was a total crapshow, which I'll admit was not at all surprising. I hugged the edge and hoped for the best. I'm getting used to passing others on traverses, which I seldom feel compelled to do otherwise, although karma has already kicked me in the a$$ at least once for doing that.
The line on Collins grew so we moved over to Supreme. Once the liftline grew at Supreme (and Sugarloaf wasn't any better) we ventured over to Wildcat, where there were empty chairs going up the hill as even Collins had a short line by then. And go figure, the terrain in Wildcat was covered with beautifully soft, chalky snow. The groomer-skiing visitors don't know what they were missing!
As an aside, I had an interesting experience earlier this holiday week when one visitor, who was standing about 10 feet from the automatic sliding glass door into GMD, asked us, "Do you know how to get into this place?" :roll: I actually asked her to repeat the question to make sure that I heard correctly!
I skied today with Skidog and AmyZ, and lunched on the GMD patio with acquaintance Rodney, one of the few other locals actually skiing today. Then again, he's arranged his life in such a way to ski 5 or 6 days per week and still be financially secure at age ~50. =D> After lunch, however, we all decided to head down canyon and get away from the masses, for the snow isn't going to change much for the next week or so and tomorrow's another day.
On the way down canyon I gave a lift to a hitchiker who had to be at least 75 years old, another Alta regular. Where else would you see seniors hitching? And it took him the entire way down the canyon to tell me all about how he bagged a drunk woman in Albany in the 1960s.
