Day 24: OK, I killed another one. 
As I was waiting for my breakfast at Goldminer's Daughter this morning a guy greeted me with a political wisecrack, no doubt egged on to do so by jamesdeluxe. It was jasoncapecod.
Jason was at Alta today with only his two daughters, Zoe and Kayla (although I'm probably misspelling that one -- sorry if I am), as his wife was already flying the white flag of surrender and opted to skip out on the last ski day of their vacation. I had been convinced that he was avoiding me all week after hearing too many tall tales from jamesdeluxe. James, and perhaps kingslug too had reportedly told Jason that I take some sort of perverse pleasure out of killing visitors. Perhaps I was wrong? I mean, what does this guy think we do every day, anyway?
So at the opening bell I opted to ride Collins with the three of them instead of Skidog, telejon and AmyZ. The others went their own way while we took a warm-up groomer/test run on Devil's Elbow and Roller Coaster. That convinced me that Jason and his daughters were all three solid skiers and that I therefore had nothing to be concerned about. Jason's two daughters, in fact, have race team experience. Given that fact I figured that the next test was ungroomed, so we wrapped back to Collins via the EBT and headed out the Baldy Shoulder Traverse to Armpit.
There the snow was divine - cut up, but still deep in soft, fluffy pockets. I skied up to the Aggie's Alley groomer and stopped to look back up the hill.
Jason's oldest daughter Zoe was bounding down the mountain just fine. But Kayla was totally wigging out in the loose snow, refusing to make a turn to the right. Jason -- being the good father -- was there trying to talk her through it. Zoe got to me first...or I should say "almost got to me," because when she got within 20 yards she promptly disappeared into a ditch like a prairie dog popping back into his den. It was like a game of Whack-a-Mole, except that there was no way that I could win this one.
Zoe climbed back out of the ditch and I was relieved to watch her brush herself off with a smile. By the time the others arrived, however, Kayla's nerves were a frazzled wreck. It didn't help that they were on skinny little race skis, although I understand that they rented something fatter at Snowbird earlier in the week. I stood there apologizing profusely, but the damage was already done.
Jason muttered something about that which does not kill us makes us stronger. Kayla looked up at me with these big, round, wet doe eyes, like Cindy-Lou Who addressing the Grinch, and when we got back to the bottom she went inside GMD to warm up.
Jason and Zoe, though, were willing to stick with me for another run to give me another chance. Riding up Collins I pointed to Sunspot and Spruce Forest, and asked if they wanted something similar to the previous run in Armpit. They agreed, although Jason muttered something again, this time about wanting to avoid the trees, so we shot out the High T as far as Sunspot.
The snow there was far stiffer than I had expected, and far stiffer than it had been in Armpit. Jason complained that it felt like a bump run. I'll admit that it was less than optimal, but it did soften up by the time we reached the Saddle. We shot through the trees to reach Watson Shelter as I was due to meet the others there, but when they hadn't yet arrived I suggested that the three of us ski down to GMD, grab Kayla and all four of us return to Baldy Brews for a warm-up latte or hot chocolate there with the others. Nope, Jason wasn't hearing anything of that suggestion, and he instead insisted that I should stay at Watson's while they would go back to GMD without me to retrieve their third. :?
I bumped into Jason again at lunch around 1:00, and when he saw me he looked like he saw a ghost. Or the grim reaper, I'm not sure which. When I turned around later he had left without saying anything.
OK, I killed a visitor again. This time, however, it didn't take all day. I swear, no one is going to hire me as a mountain host anywhere. I'm just hoping that that poor kid doesn't have nightmares tonight on the red-eye all the way back to NYC. Sorry again, Jason!
Considering that it was the Saturday of the busy Christmas/New Year's Week I was surprised to see that it wasn't that bad after all at Alta today.
There were still plenty of pockets of soft, untracked snow to be found, and we did our best to find them.
No, I wasn't rabid enough to bootpack up Dogleg. The highlight of the day was my season's first trip out Patsy Marley, beyond the ski area boundary from Catherine's.
Once we got on the west-facing aspect along the traverse, however, I was surprised to find a little bit of zipper crust atop the snow from the sun. Even at its low angle this time of year, the sun had done a minor bit of damage. So we continued out to what in Mr V's knee's honor we call ACL, which is a slightly longer line with a few degrees of aspect more to the north. Those couple of degrees caused the sun crust to magically disappear. \
/
AmyZ was the last of the four of us to drop ACL, and as she stood there waiting a lone visitor skied up behind her and quipped, "I hope that you don't mind that I'm following you guys." He was completely oblivious to the fact that he was in avalanche terrain a full half mile or so beyond the ski area boundary. He must have failed to notice the giant U.S. Forest Service warning sign within inches of the traverse as he skied past, placed right next to the bright white and red "Ski Area Boundary" sign. And when AmyZ dropped in he dropped in, too, nearly simultaneously. :roll:
Jason, this is what you missed:
And yes, Evren, I sighted a Marc_C on the hill today.
As I was waiting for my breakfast at Goldminer's Daughter this morning a guy greeted me with a political wisecrack, no doubt egged on to do so by jamesdeluxe. It was jasoncapecod.
Jason was at Alta today with only his two daughters, Zoe and Kayla (although I'm probably misspelling that one -- sorry if I am), as his wife was already flying the white flag of surrender and opted to skip out on the last ski day of their vacation. I had been convinced that he was avoiding me all week after hearing too many tall tales from jamesdeluxe. James, and perhaps kingslug too had reportedly told Jason that I take some sort of perverse pleasure out of killing visitors. Perhaps I was wrong? I mean, what does this guy think we do every day, anyway?
So at the opening bell I opted to ride Collins with the three of them instead of Skidog, telejon and AmyZ. The others went their own way while we took a warm-up groomer/test run on Devil's Elbow and Roller Coaster. That convinced me that Jason and his daughters were all three solid skiers and that I therefore had nothing to be concerned about. Jason's two daughters, in fact, have race team experience. Given that fact I figured that the next test was ungroomed, so we wrapped back to Collins via the EBT and headed out the Baldy Shoulder Traverse to Armpit.
There the snow was divine - cut up, but still deep in soft, fluffy pockets. I skied up to the Aggie's Alley groomer and stopped to look back up the hill.
Jason's oldest daughter Zoe was bounding down the mountain just fine. But Kayla was totally wigging out in the loose snow, refusing to make a turn to the right. Jason -- being the good father -- was there trying to talk her through it. Zoe got to me first...or I should say "almost got to me," because when she got within 20 yards she promptly disappeared into a ditch like a prairie dog popping back into his den. It was like a game of Whack-a-Mole, except that there was no way that I could win this one.
Zoe climbed back out of the ditch and I was relieved to watch her brush herself off with a smile. By the time the others arrived, however, Kayla's nerves were a frazzled wreck. It didn't help that they were on skinny little race skis, although I understand that they rented something fatter at Snowbird earlier in the week. I stood there apologizing profusely, but the damage was already done.
Jason muttered something about that which does not kill us makes us stronger. Kayla looked up at me with these big, round, wet doe eyes, like Cindy-Lou Who addressing the Grinch, and when we got back to the bottom she went inside GMD to warm up.
Jason and Zoe, though, were willing to stick with me for another run to give me another chance. Riding up Collins I pointed to Sunspot and Spruce Forest, and asked if they wanted something similar to the previous run in Armpit. They agreed, although Jason muttered something again, this time about wanting to avoid the trees, so we shot out the High T as far as Sunspot.
The snow there was far stiffer than I had expected, and far stiffer than it had been in Armpit. Jason complained that it felt like a bump run. I'll admit that it was less than optimal, but it did soften up by the time we reached the Saddle. We shot through the trees to reach Watson Shelter as I was due to meet the others there, but when they hadn't yet arrived I suggested that the three of us ski down to GMD, grab Kayla and all four of us return to Baldy Brews for a warm-up latte or hot chocolate there with the others. Nope, Jason wasn't hearing anything of that suggestion, and he instead insisted that I should stay at Watson's while they would go back to GMD without me to retrieve their third. :?
I bumped into Jason again at lunch around 1:00, and when he saw me he looked like he saw a ghost. Or the grim reaper, I'm not sure which. When I turned around later he had left without saying anything.
OK, I killed a visitor again. This time, however, it didn't take all day. I swear, no one is going to hire me as a mountain host anywhere. I'm just hoping that that poor kid doesn't have nightmares tonight on the red-eye all the way back to NYC. Sorry again, Jason!
Considering that it was the Saturday of the busy Christmas/New Year's Week I was surprised to see that it wasn't that bad after all at Alta today.
There were still plenty of pockets of soft, untracked snow to be found, and we did our best to find them.
No, I wasn't rabid enough to bootpack up Dogleg. The highlight of the day was my season's first trip out Patsy Marley, beyond the ski area boundary from Catherine's.
Once we got on the west-facing aspect along the traverse, however, I was surprised to find a little bit of zipper crust atop the snow from the sun. Even at its low angle this time of year, the sun had done a minor bit of damage. So we continued out to what in Mr V's knee's honor we call ACL, which is a slightly longer line with a few degrees of aspect more to the north. Those couple of degrees caused the sun crust to magically disappear. \
/ AmyZ was the last of the four of us to drop ACL, and as she stood there waiting a lone visitor skied up behind her and quipped, "I hope that you don't mind that I'm following you guys." He was completely oblivious to the fact that he was in avalanche terrain a full half mile or so beyond the ski area boundary. He must have failed to notice the giant U.S. Forest Service warning sign within inches of the traverse as he skied past, placed right next to the bright white and red "Ski Area Boundary" sign. And when AmyZ dropped in he dropped in, too, nearly simultaneously. :roll:
Jason, this is what you missed:
And yes, Evren, I sighted a Marc_C on the hill today.
