Day 55: Bottomless 5%.
Holy $hit, today was one of those days. This week's snowfall total is something like 28", with 8" of 5% fluff falling overnight last night and another 3" during the day today. TheOtherAmy, who spent the past decade living in Steamboat Springs, Colo., proudly declared that today was her all-time best day of skiing ever. While it was beyond good, to be sure, I assured her that if that's the case she has many new best days to come now that she's made Utah her home.
For most of the day it was just AmyZ, TheOtherAmy and yours truly. The Little Cottonwood Road closed at 6:15 a.m. and wasn't scheduled to reopen until 8:45, so Bobby Danger, Mike, Skidog and Eric headed north to Snowbasin. Last night's event, however, was a lake effect that pasted areas to the south and east of the Great Salt Lake in narrow bands, so I had no desire to venture north today. As I left my driveway just before 8 a.m., the road was already open ahead of schedule so I was able to sail right up LCC with no delay.
While it hardly felt crowded today the pre-opening line filled the maze at Collins, so we opted to start with a lap on the Kitty instead, which was a good call. We were able to bomb untracked from top to bottom through the trees through the cold smoke billowing up around our shoulders with face shots galore. It was so good that we had to go back for a second helping.
For our third run we headed up Collins, for I was convinced that Backside was about to open. Sure enough, even though the High Notch hike had been open for a bit we arrived right as patrol dropped the rope on the Instructor's Traverse and I was the third one through the gate, behind a patroller setting the traverse and one other guest.
We were scoring untracked with no effort whatsoever right up until lunch time, and runs after lunch included a Condo Run and a Keyhole Right, which still had deep pockets of untracked that one guy referred to as "hot tubs of snow to drop into." Why patrol left the Westward Ho gate closed, however is beyond me. On the Snowbird side of the border the Blackjack Traverse was open all the way to the Comma Apron and beyond to lower Westward Ho, so it's not like they were overly concerned about the Ho sliding.
We kept going right up to 3:45, sharing our last two runs in North Greeley and Annie's with my buddy Sam, with whom I've skied far too little this season, and Skrad, who returns home to Seattle this week after wintering here.
I'll go to sleep tonight with a smile on my face.
Holy $hit, today was one of those days. This week's snowfall total is something like 28", with 8" of 5% fluff falling overnight last night and another 3" during the day today. TheOtherAmy, who spent the past decade living in Steamboat Springs, Colo., proudly declared that today was her all-time best day of skiing ever. While it was beyond good, to be sure, I assured her that if that's the case she has many new best days to come now that she's made Utah her home.
For most of the day it was just AmyZ, TheOtherAmy and yours truly. The Little Cottonwood Road closed at 6:15 a.m. and wasn't scheduled to reopen until 8:45, so Bobby Danger, Mike, Skidog and Eric headed north to Snowbasin. Last night's event, however, was a lake effect that pasted areas to the south and east of the Great Salt Lake in narrow bands, so I had no desire to venture north today. As I left my driveway just before 8 a.m., the road was already open ahead of schedule so I was able to sail right up LCC with no delay.
While it hardly felt crowded today the pre-opening line filled the maze at Collins, so we opted to start with a lap on the Kitty instead, which was a good call. We were able to bomb untracked from top to bottom through the trees through the cold smoke billowing up around our shoulders with face shots galore. It was so good that we had to go back for a second helping.
For our third run we headed up Collins, for I was convinced that Backside was about to open. Sure enough, even though the High Notch hike had been open for a bit we arrived right as patrol dropped the rope on the Instructor's Traverse and I was the third one through the gate, behind a patroller setting the traverse and one other guest.
We were scoring untracked with no effort whatsoever right up until lunch time, and runs after lunch included a Condo Run and a Keyhole Right, which still had deep pockets of untracked that one guy referred to as "hot tubs of snow to drop into." Why patrol left the Westward Ho gate closed, however is beyond me. On the Snowbird side of the border the Blackjack Traverse was open all the way to the Comma Apron and beyond to lower Westward Ho, so it's not like they were overly concerned about the Ho sliding.
We kept going right up to 3:45, sharing our last two runs in North Greeley and Annie's with my buddy Sam, with whom I've skied far too little this season, and Skrad, who returns home to Seattle this week after wintering here.
I'll go to sleep tonight with a smile on my face.
