Day 23: The White Room
Catherine's Area was about the only gated terrain that opened on Thursday, so everything else had about 15" of untracked still ready to be slayed on Friday. I figured that Backside would likely open, so I opted to sneak out of work for a couple of hours to see if I was right.
The vacation weekers were out in full force.
The Top 10 Signs You Can Tell It's Christmas Week
10. RFID ticket gates all four across on Collins are stuck with people who can't figure out how to use their lift tickets, despite lifties screaming to the entire liftline before they approach the gate, "Your ticket has to be in a pocket all by itself!" Not coicidentally, they were told that when they bought their lift ticket, too.
9. People zig or zag for absolutely no predictable reason whatsoever and with no bearing on fall lines or traffic patterns.
8. The biggest liftline in Alta is on Sunnyside.
7. You see people in the flat basin between Collins and Germania with their map out...despite the fact that they've gone maybe 50 yards and there's absolutely no way else to go.
6. You witness people trying to open an avalanche gate themselves. ("But, it was open earlier!!")
5. Devil's Elbow is a killing field.
4. "Front row!" means absolutely nothing.
3. Neither does stepping up or down from the traverse while stopped.
2. Whoops and hollers through an inch of new snow.
And number the number-one way you can tell it's Christmas week:
1. You get to see gems like this one in the deep ditch that carries Little Cottonwood Creek past the bottom of Greeley Hill:
I had expected clear skies; what we got, however, was one last desperate gasp from the snowstorm that wouldn't quit. Visibility was near zero, which led me to question whether or not they'd open Backside or the Ballroom Traverse, so I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw them open the hike to High Notch.
We weren't willing to hike, however, which meant giving those who were a first crack at it before patrol would open the gate to the Instructors Traverse. We had just disembarked Collins when we watched a red coat exit the patrol building at Germania Pass to drop the rope.
I looked ahead and saw that the traverse wasn't set, so I wasn't dumb enough to hop in first. I knew better. I was happy with third place through the gate.
I at first admired the determination of the guy who insisted upon being first through the gate, but that admiration quickly evaporated as I watched him drop onto a line that was much too low. With Skidog and AmyZ behind me I continued to set the proper traverse for a while before deciding that I had done my share and dropped back into position behind Number 1 on his lower line.
Now, the High Notch gate had been open for a while, so it's not like we were heading to virgin untracked. And as I've already said, the guy in front had insisted upon being first through the gate, too, so it's not like he didn't know what he had coming to him,either. I was nonetheless caught off guard when, right as I dropped into the fall line behind where he was still traversing, the guy yelled at me, "Really, dude? That's what I broke trail for?"
I damned near busted a stitch laughing so hard, especially when in his rush to get back ahead of me he continued down Yellow Trail into the hole at the bottom instead of traversing out to Backside. It must've taken him 30 sweaty minutes to get out of there.
Meanwhile, while he was wallowing on the flats we had a White Room run down Backside. I've had plenty of face shots this winter, but this was the first time that they were continuous from one turn to the next, to the point that I figured I'd better stop for a moment as it had been a while since I was able to see anything. Fortunately, every few turns I'd catch a brief glimpse of the terrain ahead, so I wouldn't have to stop until we reached the groomer at the bottom.
It was so good that we did it again, and I found another completely untracked slot below the cliffs to skier's right of Eddie's High before I had to trudge back to work. As I was taking off my boots, as if by divine intervention Elvis Costello's "Welcome to the Working Week" came on in my helmet music system.
About an hour after I got back I got an instant message on my computer from my boss, who had noticed me go offline:
"So, how was Alta?"
Catherine's Area was about the only gated terrain that opened on Thursday, so everything else had about 15" of untracked still ready to be slayed on Friday. I figured that Backside would likely open, so I opted to sneak out of work for a couple of hours to see if I was right.
The vacation weekers were out in full force.
The Top 10 Signs You Can Tell It's Christmas Week
10. RFID ticket gates all four across on Collins are stuck with people who can't figure out how to use their lift tickets, despite lifties screaming to the entire liftline before they approach the gate, "Your ticket has to be in a pocket all by itself!" Not coicidentally, they were told that when they bought their lift ticket, too.
9. People zig or zag for absolutely no predictable reason whatsoever and with no bearing on fall lines or traffic patterns.
8. The biggest liftline in Alta is on Sunnyside.
7. You see people in the flat basin between Collins and Germania with their map out...despite the fact that they've gone maybe 50 yards and there's absolutely no way else to go.
6. You witness people trying to open an avalanche gate themselves. ("But, it was open earlier!!")
5. Devil's Elbow is a killing field.
4. "Front row!" means absolutely nothing.
3. Neither does stepping up or down from the traverse while stopped.
2. Whoops and hollers through an inch of new snow.
And number the number-one way you can tell it's Christmas week:
1. You get to see gems like this one in the deep ditch that carries Little Cottonwood Creek past the bottom of Greeley Hill:
I had expected clear skies; what we got, however, was one last desperate gasp from the snowstorm that wouldn't quit. Visibility was near zero, which led me to question whether or not they'd open Backside or the Ballroom Traverse, so I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw them open the hike to High Notch.
We weren't willing to hike, however, which meant giving those who were a first crack at it before patrol would open the gate to the Instructors Traverse. We had just disembarked Collins when we watched a red coat exit the patrol building at Germania Pass to drop the rope.
I looked ahead and saw that the traverse wasn't set, so I wasn't dumb enough to hop in first. I knew better. I was happy with third place through the gate.
I at first admired the determination of the guy who insisted upon being first through the gate, but that admiration quickly evaporated as I watched him drop onto a line that was much too low. With Skidog and AmyZ behind me I continued to set the proper traverse for a while before deciding that I had done my share and dropped back into position behind Number 1 on his lower line.
Now, the High Notch gate had been open for a while, so it's not like we were heading to virgin untracked. And as I've already said, the guy in front had insisted upon being first through the gate, too, so it's not like he didn't know what he had coming to him,either. I was nonetheless caught off guard when, right as I dropped into the fall line behind where he was still traversing, the guy yelled at me, "Really, dude? That's what I broke trail for?"
I damned near busted a stitch laughing so hard, especially when in his rush to get back ahead of me he continued down Yellow Trail into the hole at the bottom instead of traversing out to Backside. It must've taken him 30 sweaty minutes to get out of there.
Meanwhile, while he was wallowing on the flats we had a White Room run down Backside. I've had plenty of face shots this winter, but this was the first time that they were continuous from one turn to the next, to the point that I figured I'd better stop for a moment as it had been a while since I was able to see anything. Fortunately, every few turns I'd catch a brief glimpse of the terrain ahead, so I wouldn't have to stop until we reached the groomer at the bottom.
It was so good that we did it again, and I found another completely untracked slot below the cliffs to skier's right of Eddie's High before I had to trudge back to work. As I was taking off my boots, as if by divine intervention Elvis Costello's "Welcome to the Working Week" came on in my helmet music system.
About an hour after I got back I got an instant message on my computer from my boss, who had noticed me go offline:
"So, how was Alta?"