Day 26: More groomers
Pretty much "lather, rinse, repeat" conditions today from a day earlier at Alta. Ungroomed snow was stiff and unforgiving, while groomers were smooth, fast and firm. I thus stuck to the latter for my morning zooming around Alta and racking up vertical with colleague Doug and his college-age son Steven. Unlike yesterday, today was sunny albeit still cold, with morning temps around 10ºF, and storm clouds have since begun streaming in the west ahead of our next system, which is looking very, very promising for midweek.
Holiday visitor numbers appear to be starting to increase, although with careful timing we had ski-on chairs most of the morning. From the opening bell we went straight to Supreme, and when a small line began forming there around 10:30 a.m. we returned to Collins, encountering only a modest five-minute line on Sugarloaf to get back to Collins Gulch. By the time I hung up the skis around 11:30 or so, however, a small line was starting to form at Collins as well. In between I tried to run a few laps in Mineral Basin at Snowbird, but the Baldy Express was on hold until at least this afternoon due to a power failure.
Pretty much "lather, rinse, repeat" conditions today from a day earlier at Alta. Ungroomed snow was stiff and unforgiving, while groomers were smooth, fast and firm. I thus stuck to the latter for my morning zooming around Alta and racking up vertical with colleague Doug and his college-age son Steven. Unlike yesterday, today was sunny albeit still cold, with morning temps around 10ºF, and storm clouds have since begun streaming in the west ahead of our next system, which is looking very, very promising for midweek.
Holiday visitor numbers appear to be starting to increase, although with careful timing we had ski-on chairs most of the morning. From the opening bell we went straight to Supreme, and when a small line began forming there around 10:30 a.m. we returned to Collins, encountering only a modest five-minute line on Sugarloaf to get back to Collins Gulch. By the time I hung up the skis around 11:30 or so, however, a small line was starting to form at Collins as well. In between I tried to run a few laps in Mineral Basin at Snowbird, but the Baldy Express was on hold until at least this afternoon due to a power failure.
