Day 42: "Two inches" and face shots.
Can two inches of new snow really produce face shots? Not really, at least not for me. But when Alta measured from the base of my skis up to about mid-shin they apparently came up with two inches.
That's how much new snow they were reporting this morning, while across the ridgeline Brighton and Solitude were reporting eight. The disparity didn't surprise me that much, for pre-frontal warm air advection snowfall around here can vary intensely from location to location. No matter, I figured that I'd go up and take a few runs this morning.
The pre-opening liftline buildup on Collins was substantial, especially for a non-holiday Friday with only two inches of new snow reported. All of the primary gate access was closed, so that also meant that there would be a lot of people skiing a smaller set of acreage. Still, the surfaces looked fairly impressive from the chair on our first ride up, and we headed out the High T for a first run down Thirds (from Piss Pass) into Greeley Bowl.
The first three turns were honest-to-goodness face shots, and no, I'm not kidding. The new snow from last night had some beef to it, and it was far deeper than Alta had reported. Because it was so good and because virtually no one was skiing over there, AmyZ, Telejon, rdwore, TheOtherAmy and I all went straight back to do it all over again.
I finished up with two more runs with the group -- a Titus' Pocket and an Eagle's Nest -- before returning to work. The main body of this storm should actually arrive sometime around the wee hours of tomorrow morning.
Can two inches of new snow really produce face shots? Not really, at least not for me. But when Alta measured from the base of my skis up to about mid-shin they apparently came up with two inches.
That's how much new snow they were reporting this morning, while across the ridgeline Brighton and Solitude were reporting eight. The disparity didn't surprise me that much, for pre-frontal warm air advection snowfall around here can vary intensely from location to location. No matter, I figured that I'd go up and take a few runs this morning.
The pre-opening liftline buildup on Collins was substantial, especially for a non-holiday Friday with only two inches of new snow reported. All of the primary gate access was closed, so that also meant that there would be a lot of people skiing a smaller set of acreage. Still, the surfaces looked fairly impressive from the chair on our first ride up, and we headed out the High T for a first run down Thirds (from Piss Pass) into Greeley Bowl.
The first three turns were honest-to-goodness face shots, and no, I'm not kidding. The new snow from last night had some beef to it, and it was far deeper than Alta had reported. Because it was so good and because virtually no one was skiing over there, AmyZ, Telejon, rdwore, TheOtherAmy and I all went straight back to do it all over again.
I finished up with two more runs with the group -- a Titus' Pocket and an Eagle's Nest -- before returning to work. The main body of this storm should actually arrive sometime around the wee hours of tomorrow morning.
