Day 37: Quality over quantity.
That's always been my mantra, and today we gave Tony Crocker another lesson in that philosophy. The odd thing is, I think he's starting to get it. On our third trip out to Catherine's Area today he commented, "After my 29th day of skiing this trip I'm starting to understand this quality over quantity thing."
Well, knock me over with a feather.
Bobby Danger, rdwore, AmyZ and rdwore's NYC friend John were back today for more. And Crocker and his friend Liz joined us, although they didn't make it in time for the opening bell and joined us on a subsequent lap. We picked up about 4" of new snow by opening, but by choosing the right areas we were skiing a good foot of new snow by lunchtime. And this stuff had some meat to it, so if you found parts of the mountain that picked up 12" you weren't hitting bottom on the base at all. That made today a legitimate powder day, something that's been a rare commodity this winter. I got numerous face shots today and I can't remember that happening earlier this season.
On our first couple of runs we headed out the High T, through Piss Pass and onto Greeley Hill. First run I didn't cross a single track top to bottom. Visibility was nil, but it really didn't matter. Liz and Tony were there by the second lap through, and while lightly tracked it still skied mighty well. The snow started out very wet overnight, and I'm guessing that the moisture helped to break down any crustiness in the old snow that makes up our base.
Catherine's Area, at the head of the canyon receives more snowfall than anywhere else at Alta, and today wasn't any different. I also figured that lower angle might be better, so we headed up Supreme and began the trudge up to Catherine's. One of our preferred lines isn't one that most folks figure out, and it remained untracked all day. On each trip we'd hike and/or traverse out to near Patsy Marley, twice to Powerline Run and the last time in the Albion Gully, which at 3 p.m. was still untracked even though on our last trip to Catherine's folks had apparently caught on, as there were more people hiking up from the top of Supreme than I've ever seen. An Alta ski instructor of 20 years had the same observation. At lunchtime in Alf's I bumped into John, a 70-something regular Alta skier and former Vail ski instructor from the 1960s who we met earlier this winter. John reported that the bumps beneath the new snow in Wildcat were still crusty, and that was just after we descended a bottomless run beneath the Powerline. After hearing our reports, John was one of the many who seemed to head for Catherine's after lunch.
All but Tony and Liz quit at 3:30. We figured that we'd cruise down from Germania Pass on a cool-down run, but even the groomers were skiing more like bump runs as traffic on terrain limited today by gate closures had pushed the heavy snow into piles. That last run was far more exhausting than anything we did today.
rdwore and Tony were both taking photos today, too, so it's quite likely that more photos will be added to this topic. Check back later.
That's always been my mantra, and today we gave Tony Crocker another lesson in that philosophy. The odd thing is, I think he's starting to get it. On our third trip out to Catherine's Area today he commented, "After my 29th day of skiing this trip I'm starting to understand this quality over quantity thing."
Well, knock me over with a feather.
Bobby Danger, rdwore, AmyZ and rdwore's NYC friend John were back today for more. And Crocker and his friend Liz joined us, although they didn't make it in time for the opening bell and joined us on a subsequent lap. We picked up about 4" of new snow by opening, but by choosing the right areas we were skiing a good foot of new snow by lunchtime. And this stuff had some meat to it, so if you found parts of the mountain that picked up 12" you weren't hitting bottom on the base at all. That made today a legitimate powder day, something that's been a rare commodity this winter. I got numerous face shots today and I can't remember that happening earlier this season.
On our first couple of runs we headed out the High T, through Piss Pass and onto Greeley Hill. First run I didn't cross a single track top to bottom. Visibility was nil, but it really didn't matter. Liz and Tony were there by the second lap through, and while lightly tracked it still skied mighty well. The snow started out very wet overnight, and I'm guessing that the moisture helped to break down any crustiness in the old snow that makes up our base.
Catherine's Area, at the head of the canyon receives more snowfall than anywhere else at Alta, and today wasn't any different. I also figured that lower angle might be better, so we headed up Supreme and began the trudge up to Catherine's. One of our preferred lines isn't one that most folks figure out, and it remained untracked all day. On each trip we'd hike and/or traverse out to near Patsy Marley, twice to Powerline Run and the last time in the Albion Gully, which at 3 p.m. was still untracked even though on our last trip to Catherine's folks had apparently caught on, as there were more people hiking up from the top of Supreme than I've ever seen. An Alta ski instructor of 20 years had the same observation. At lunchtime in Alf's I bumped into John, a 70-something regular Alta skier and former Vail ski instructor from the 1960s who we met earlier this winter. John reported that the bumps beneath the new snow in Wildcat were still crusty, and that was just after we descended a bottomless run beneath the Powerline. After hearing our reports, John was one of the many who seemed to head for Catherine's after lunch.
All but Tony and Liz quit at 3:30. We figured that we'd cruise down from Germania Pass on a cool-down run, but even the groomers were skiing more like bump runs as traffic on terrain limited today by gate closures had pushed the heavy snow into piles. That last run was far more exhausting than anything we did today.
rdwore and Tony were both taking photos today, too, so it's quite likely that more photos will be added to this topic. Check back later.
