Day 11: "This weekend keeps exceeding my expectations."
That was Tele Jon's comment today, and I think that he spoke for all of us. Yesterday delivered really good snow despite flat light and summit winds. Today featured unexpected sunshine and once again surprisingly good snow, especially after I learned when getting up this morning that it drizzled up to 9000 feet last night. That's only around tower 4 of Collins, but still I figured that at least the lower mountain would be a bit crunchy.
But it wasn't. A couple of inches of dense new snow fell on top and seemed to absorb the moisture from the snow, rather than freeze up the old tracks from yesterday. We had an on-again, off-again group today including Bobby Danger, Tele Jon, Pat, Marc_C and Sam Wilson (day one for him this season). My legs needed a warm-up this morning, so Pat and I took a cruiser down Devil's Elbow and Roller Coaster while Bobby and Jon skied Backside, but when arriving at the bottom of Sugarloaf I looked up and immediately regretted my decision. Run two, therefore, was a Backside for all of us, plus Skrad and his friend Heather from Seattle, who we kept bumping into all over the place today.
Glory Hole hadn't yet been hit too hard either, so we felt obligated to track that up as well, just in time as Jamey Parks and his posse came roaring down behind us and finished it off.
Devil's Castle opened yesterday afternoon for the first time this season that I'm aware of, so that had to be on the hit list today. The group got separated out there with Skrad and Heather following Bobby Danger while Jon and I kept working our way right finding untracked.
After some early morning bombing ASP opened Baldy Main Chute. Any thoughts I had of heading up there, however, were quickly dashed by ASP's placement of the bootpack. Rather than heading up the ridge from the Sugar Shack as it usually does, the bootpack started from midway down the EBT and went straight up East Baldy. :shock:
That's just friggin' nuts. After riding up Wildcat Jon and Bob decided to head down through Keyhole to see if Baldy access was open from Snowbird instead (it wasn't), so Sam and I hit a Restaurant Hill to return to Collins and head out to Greeley Bowl. The High T is getting ugly again, with many ski grabbing rocks at Sunspot Ridge and a narrow but skiable line past the fence to Piss Pass. It was worth every bit of effort, though, as there was plenty of smooth untracked snow on Greeley.
We rode Sunnyside to rejoin Pat and Marc_C at Sugarloaf, and skied a Ballroom to what I call "Across the Street" (if it has a true unofficial name I'm unaware of it) back down to GMD for lunch. By this time, however, my legs were shot, especially after yesterday, and I headed down canyon at 1:30.
That was Tele Jon's comment today, and I think that he spoke for all of us. Yesterday delivered really good snow despite flat light and summit winds. Today featured unexpected sunshine and once again surprisingly good snow, especially after I learned when getting up this morning that it drizzled up to 9000 feet last night. That's only around tower 4 of Collins, but still I figured that at least the lower mountain would be a bit crunchy.
But it wasn't. A couple of inches of dense new snow fell on top and seemed to absorb the moisture from the snow, rather than freeze up the old tracks from yesterday. We had an on-again, off-again group today including Bobby Danger, Tele Jon, Pat, Marc_C and Sam Wilson (day one for him this season). My legs needed a warm-up this morning, so Pat and I took a cruiser down Devil's Elbow and Roller Coaster while Bobby and Jon skied Backside, but when arriving at the bottom of Sugarloaf I looked up and immediately regretted my decision. Run two, therefore, was a Backside for all of us, plus Skrad and his friend Heather from Seattle, who we kept bumping into all over the place today.
Glory Hole hadn't yet been hit too hard either, so we felt obligated to track that up as well, just in time as Jamey Parks and his posse came roaring down behind us and finished it off.
Devil's Castle opened yesterday afternoon for the first time this season that I'm aware of, so that had to be on the hit list today. The group got separated out there with Skrad and Heather following Bobby Danger while Jon and I kept working our way right finding untracked.
After some early morning bombing ASP opened Baldy Main Chute. Any thoughts I had of heading up there, however, were quickly dashed by ASP's placement of the bootpack. Rather than heading up the ridge from the Sugar Shack as it usually does, the bootpack started from midway down the EBT and went straight up East Baldy. :shock:
That's just friggin' nuts. After riding up Wildcat Jon and Bob decided to head down through Keyhole to see if Baldy access was open from Snowbird instead (it wasn't), so Sam and I hit a Restaurant Hill to return to Collins and head out to Greeley Bowl. The High T is getting ugly again, with many ski grabbing rocks at Sunspot Ridge and a narrow but skiable line past the fence to Piss Pass. It was worth every bit of effort, though, as there was plenty of smooth untracked snow on Greeley.
We rode Sunnyside to rejoin Pat and Marc_C at Sugarloaf, and skied a Ballroom to what I call "Across the Street" (if it has a true unofficial name I'm unaware of it) back down to GMD for lunch. By this time, however, my legs were shot, especially after yesterday, and I headed down canyon at 1:30.
