Alta, UT 2/1/10

Powderqueen

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Today was incredible. Ballroom and Backside opened and we were in a good position each time. Didn't get many photos during the frenzy, but at least it was a Monday and there weren't so many people. No lift lines all day. Sunshine and lots of fresh powder made for a super day. I did get a few pix when we had a chance to slow down after the first few laps.

A brief trip report with some photos from my Iphone is here
http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/ut ... -2010.html

Ballroom2.jpg
 
Powderqueen":29mogbjl said:
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Paul took this photo of me on my third lap in Ballroom

That's not Ballroom, that's clear the other side of Baldy Shoulder from Ballroom. That's Bad News.
 
Admin":2mdrmh08 said:
Powderqueen":2mdrmh08 said:
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Paul took this photo of me on my third lap in Ballroom

That's not Ballroom, that's clear the other side of Baldy Shoulder from Ballroom. That's Bad News.
Yep - far far beyond Ballroom. Ballroom ends at the rope line below Main Chute. But if'n yer gonna get that picky about corrections...
only the cliffs above her in the right half of the photo are The Bad News Cliffs. The line PQ is skiing is Bounous' Chute (and if you want to get real technical, the spot where Bounous', Onno's Slide, and Armpit all kinda merge together).
 
I don't know the names of all the shots off of Baldy Shoulder (thanks for that info). All I know is that we entered Ballroom to get there and had to schlep up to the top of the traverse to ski that line. It was pretty sweet, even on lap 3 with the other tracks. Snow quality was excellent. We did 4 total from that traverse, in different places. I'm sure each one had a name. The first run was down by the first fence and it was totally virgin untracked. No time to take a photo of that...there was a bit of a frenzy the first time in and many of the good lines were full of avy debris. The next few laps were less intense and had more tracks but there was much less pressure.

Off Backside, we almost got through the chute that drops into Glory Hole (on it's left shoulder...I'm sure it has a name), but when we got to it, we found avy control charges black/gray debris and bailed...which saved us from the slog out. After looking at it from the Sugarloaf lift, it seemed that if we braved the explosed snow we could have had some sweet turns to the side of it in Glory Hole. There were a few huge slides in there and we saw people in there trying to get out. Seemed like we made the right decision. There were plenty of nice untracked turns to be found elsewhere throughout the day.

While it is fun to follow locals around, it was also fun exploring on our own. We didn't make too many advanced decisions and when we got off the lift, just about every time, it seemed somewhat obvious where to go...except our last run. No one was on the High T...wondered why. But it was rewarded with untracked in Eagle's Nest.
 
Marc_C":2m2ratgi said:
But if'n yer gonna get that picky about corrections...
only the cliffs above her in the right half of the photo are The Bad News Cliffs. The line PQ is skiing is Bounous' Chute (and if you want to get real technical, the spot where Bounous', Onno's Slide, and Armpit all kinda merge together).

Yep, you're right of course. Note that I omitted "cliffs" from "Bad News" -- I'm makin' up names again. :lol:

I just couldn't recall at the time the name of Bounous' Chute. However, the point I was trying to make is that it's not even in the same county as Ballroom.
 
Skidog":3p6t022e said:
knew i shouldve skied yesterday...damnit... :-)

Looks nice..

M

I'm sure you'll have plenty more powder days to come Skidog.

I'm feeling quite fortunate that I was able to make the most of this past storm, 3 days of fresh snow.

Another system is moving in tomorrow. If you need another powder day, Thursday may be a good one to take off from work. Then another on the weekend...fingers crossed.

I'm feeling pretty fortunate with my timing here so far.
 
Marc_C":1dhdu7pz said:
Yep - far far beyond Ballroom. Ballroom ends at the rope line below Main Chute. But if'n yer gonna get that picky about corrections...
only the cliffs above her in the right half of the photo are The Bad News Cliffs. The line PQ is skiing is Bounous' Chute (and if you want to get real technical, the spot where Bounous', Onno's Slide, and Armpit all kinda merge together).

Impressive. Most impressive. My guess is that Marc_C has the Powder Hound's Guide to Alta. I assume Bounous' Chute is named after Junior Bounous, the long, long, long-time director of the ski school at Snowbird. I had the pleasure of meeting Junior at ski instructor training at Snowbird - in his 70's he had more energy than most teenagers. I would be happy to be half the skier he is when I'm his age (assuming I'm even capable of skiing then)...
 
rsmith":24fiywk5 said:
in his 70's he had more energy than most teenagers.

He still does, although it's admittedly been a year or two since I've seen him. Here's a picture of him with Crocker, Bobby Danger and yours truly in March of 2007:

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I'm not sure which was older, Junior or Crocker's jacket. :lol:
 
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