Day 25: Another near-death experience
Yesterday we darned near killed Roger. Today I darned near did it to myself.
I hooked up with Marc_C and some of his wife's relatives who were visiting from NJ. Low intermediates all, we spent most of the morning cruising around off Supreme. Liftlines were substantial, but never more than 10 minutes. In fact, my first ride up Collins at 9:45 required a whopping 90-second holiday wait.
Visitors, however, are everywhere. Cafeteria seats are hard to come by. Folks stop and gawk right in the middle of a gate entrance. People stop to rest right in the middle of a traverse. Whether they don't know, understand, or care to learn obvious traffic patterns, things that we routinely count on without even thinking about them require attention this week. People zig when you clearly expect them to zag. Groomers like Devil's Elbow have waves of humanity descending them, sometimes making a pause for a gap in traffic flow a wise decision. It was reportedly not as crowded as yesterday, as a long chat with Alta's lift supervisor indicated, and rumor had it that lines were huge at Snowbird in Mineral Basin yesterday.
On one fortuitious run down Rock 'n Roll, however, I spotted a patroller removing the rope from a gate guarding the Supreme entrance to Devil's Castle. That area hasn't been open yet this year, and miraculously no one else was standing at the gate. I called over to Marc to let him know that I was heading out and would meet the group back at Supreme, then climbed up to the gate. They were still wrapping up control work, but the area would be open in a minute or two, during which time another half dozen or so skiers gathered with me. Sure enough, in a moment the gate was opened.
I've never been the first one out an Alta gate, much less been the first one out an Alta gate in an entire season. Even though that access only yields a few turns, unless you're willing to bootpack the Devil's Castle apron, the prospects were enticing.
I did my best to pull away from the others behind me, then traversed out into the trees and dropped in. The first few turns were a disappointment, heavily wind-slabbed, but the hill eventually yield some fluffier thigh-deep turns lower down. Delightful!
I popped back out onto the trail network after threading through some of the homes on Cabin Hill and rejoined the group to head back up Supreme. En route back up I salivated over the untracked snow beneath the East Castle traverse, which had also opened.
Now, the East Castle traverse is poorly named. It's no traverse. Rather, it's a good mile or more of a gradually ascending path that requires sidestepping up the whole way. All that, with not much reward for the effort, just a few hundred feet of vertical unless you're willing to take the really high line to the top of the face, which, of course, requires even more effort (and was terra prohibida today). In all the years that I've skied Alta, it just never seemed worth the grunt-to-smile ratio. With everything else skied out, however, and having never been out there before, I decided that today was the day.
Marc_C led his brother-in-law and nephew up their first venture into Catherine's as his sister-in-law and niece took a groomer and I struck out for East Castle. My plan had been to head about halfway out and drop in, but once there I realized that I'd only have a half dozen turns before hitting flats, and looking ahead I saw that the vertical was likely three or four times as much if I went all the way out. So...
Off I trudged. And trudged. And trudged. The route was still unconsolidated, so it was like trying to jog through deep sand on the beach, sinking deeply with each step. Huffing and puffing, I eventually made my way to a flatter section where the route turned north across the face, now merely walking in skis rather than sidestepping uphill.
Three quarters of the way across East Castle proper, I dropped in. The surface was clearly wind slab, hardly what I could justify all of this effort for, but with no other aspects to choose from it was sixes as to where I descended. The wind slab was several inches thick and hardly the powder I had sought, but here, too, it gradually relented to powder as I got lower down.
Once back to Rock 'n Roll, I almost immediately headed out another gate into Devil's Castle and found good snow in steep trees once again.
The slog, however, took the wind out of my sails. Completely. My legs were pure rubber. I was thankful for the chance to sit in the snow at the bottom of Supreme to wait for the others. They eventually arrived, and we headed down to Sugarloaf, then across the Germ Return. I opted for Ballroom, which was soft and chalky with only tiny bumplets, then stopped at Watson Shelter to exchange a Christmas gift from The Kid. Marc_C and the others thought it still too crowded and took one more run while I grabbed lunch, but with the crowd still there on their next lap they headed down to lunch on the deck at Goldminer's Daughter. I had hoped that an after-lunch latté at Baldy Brews would re-light my fire, but two turns down convinced me that I had nothing left. I headed to the truck to call it a day. At least I'd gotten some powder today!
I thought about taking a nap in the parking lot before heading down canyon, but instead stuck toothpicks in my eyes and headed home for a 2-hour nap.
With the opening of Devil's Castle and East Castle, the only thing remaining closed is Supreme Bowl, and frankly I'm surprised that they aren't allowing folks to ski it to compact a base ahead of the next storm, which may arrive in about 5 or 6 days.
Yesterday we darned near killed Roger. Today I darned near did it to myself.
I hooked up with Marc_C and some of his wife's relatives who were visiting from NJ. Low intermediates all, we spent most of the morning cruising around off Supreme. Liftlines were substantial, but never more than 10 minutes. In fact, my first ride up Collins at 9:45 required a whopping 90-second holiday wait.
Visitors, however, are everywhere. Cafeteria seats are hard to come by. Folks stop and gawk right in the middle of a gate entrance. People stop to rest right in the middle of a traverse. Whether they don't know, understand, or care to learn obvious traffic patterns, things that we routinely count on without even thinking about them require attention this week. People zig when you clearly expect them to zag. Groomers like Devil's Elbow have waves of humanity descending them, sometimes making a pause for a gap in traffic flow a wise decision. It was reportedly not as crowded as yesterday, as a long chat with Alta's lift supervisor indicated, and rumor had it that lines were huge at Snowbird in Mineral Basin yesterday.
On one fortuitious run down Rock 'n Roll, however, I spotted a patroller removing the rope from a gate guarding the Supreme entrance to Devil's Castle. That area hasn't been open yet this year, and miraculously no one else was standing at the gate. I called over to Marc to let him know that I was heading out and would meet the group back at Supreme, then climbed up to the gate. They were still wrapping up control work, but the area would be open in a minute or two, during which time another half dozen or so skiers gathered with me. Sure enough, in a moment the gate was opened.
I've never been the first one out an Alta gate, much less been the first one out an Alta gate in an entire season. Even though that access only yields a few turns, unless you're willing to bootpack the Devil's Castle apron, the prospects were enticing.
I did my best to pull away from the others behind me, then traversed out into the trees and dropped in. The first few turns were a disappointment, heavily wind-slabbed, but the hill eventually yield some fluffier thigh-deep turns lower down. Delightful!
I popped back out onto the trail network after threading through some of the homes on Cabin Hill and rejoined the group to head back up Supreme. En route back up I salivated over the untracked snow beneath the East Castle traverse, which had also opened.
Now, the East Castle traverse is poorly named. It's no traverse. Rather, it's a good mile or more of a gradually ascending path that requires sidestepping up the whole way. All that, with not much reward for the effort, just a few hundred feet of vertical unless you're willing to take the really high line to the top of the face, which, of course, requires even more effort (and was terra prohibida today). In all the years that I've skied Alta, it just never seemed worth the grunt-to-smile ratio. With everything else skied out, however, and having never been out there before, I decided that today was the day.
Marc_C led his brother-in-law and nephew up their first venture into Catherine's as his sister-in-law and niece took a groomer and I struck out for East Castle. My plan had been to head about halfway out and drop in, but once there I realized that I'd only have a half dozen turns before hitting flats, and looking ahead I saw that the vertical was likely three or four times as much if I went all the way out. So...
Off I trudged. And trudged. And trudged. The route was still unconsolidated, so it was like trying to jog through deep sand on the beach, sinking deeply with each step. Huffing and puffing, I eventually made my way to a flatter section where the route turned north across the face, now merely walking in skis rather than sidestepping uphill.
Three quarters of the way across East Castle proper, I dropped in. The surface was clearly wind slab, hardly what I could justify all of this effort for, but with no other aspects to choose from it was sixes as to where I descended. The wind slab was several inches thick and hardly the powder I had sought, but here, too, it gradually relented to powder as I got lower down.
Once back to Rock 'n Roll, I almost immediately headed out another gate into Devil's Castle and found good snow in steep trees once again.
The slog, however, took the wind out of my sails. Completely. My legs were pure rubber. I was thankful for the chance to sit in the snow at the bottom of Supreme to wait for the others. They eventually arrived, and we headed down to Sugarloaf, then across the Germ Return. I opted for Ballroom, which was soft and chalky with only tiny bumplets, then stopped at Watson Shelter to exchange a Christmas gift from The Kid. Marc_C and the others thought it still too crowded and took one more run while I grabbed lunch, but with the crowd still there on their next lap they headed down to lunch on the deck at Goldminer's Daughter. I had hoped that an after-lunch latté at Baldy Brews would re-light my fire, but two turns down convinced me that I had nothing left. I headed to the truck to call it a day. At least I'd gotten some powder today!
I thought about taking a nap in the parking lot before heading down canyon, but instead stuck toothpicks in my eyes and headed home for a 2-hour nap.
With the opening of Devil's Castle and East Castle, the only thing remaining closed is Supreme Bowl, and frankly I'm surprised that they aren't allowing folks to ski it to compact a base ahead of the next storm, which may arrive in about 5 or 6 days.
