Day 58: Powder day
Our storm was a bust, but only relatively speaking. The forecast had been for two to three feet of new snow, and an unexpected wind direction (northeast rather than northwest) kept snow totals down. Alta recorded a storm total of 18 inches by this morning, so Alta it was.
It wasn't blower, but that's a good thing, for it kept the refrozen sun crust pretty much hidden, except on the traverses. I'm guessing it was 8-10 percent. The good news was that all terrain gates remained closed yesterday during the storm, so Backside and Baldy Shoulder/Ballroom still held the full storm total untracked. It wasn't very busy, either, so I suspect that most SLV locals didn't realize that wonderful fact, and only noticed the four additional inches overnight and went to work instead.
I didn't. Neither did Marc_C nor Pat. I gave The Kid a hall pass from school. Liftlines lurker and former Canyons patroller Acidchrist is still in the neighborhood and would join us, but not until our third run as he blew out the sidewall on his beloved Stockli Stormrider DP and had to take them to the Lift House for repair.
What he missed were the best two runs of the morning. We were in the Collins liftline by 9:10, five minutes prior to opening, and headed straight for Backside. Yellow Trail was only lightly tracked. There were still oodles of untracked lines on Backside proper, and the four of us tore it up, a special untracked line for each of us.
We worked our way right to return to Sugarloaf. Just above the Sugarloaf Return, Marc_C popped a ski and couldn't find it. We were below him on the Return itself, so as he started digging we yelled up that benevolent souls that we are, we'd make another run and arrive to help him search thereafter. :wink:
As I stood for a second time at the saddle separating Backside from Yellow Trail, I watched the lemmings heading for Backside and looked down over the knoll beneath my feet and spotted...nothing. No tracks! I looked at Pat, and she agreed, and we pushed off into divine untracked snow. We both agreed that either one of these two runs by themselves made it worth blowing off work today, but the two of them together, well...there was no doubt that we'd made the right decision. We arrived in the gully to find Marc_C still searching for his ski. About 10 minutes later, doing a falling-leaf sideslip while probing the snow with my pole, I was sideslipping backward when I felt and heard a "clink" against something in the snow. I reached down and pulled up a shiny yellow CMH edition Volkl Explosiv. Found it!
Now that Marc_C had two skis again, we returned to Sugarloaf to lap Backside a third time. After waiting 5 minutes atop Collins, Acidchrist finally joined us. The Kid, whining about skinny skis that wouldn't glide (his Line Prophet 100s are being warrantied, and he's sold his Line Motherships, so he was on Rossi Scratch Sprayers, his park skis), headed down to GMD for a bite to eat while his skis were being waxed. We were thus still a party of four, and this time dropped skier's right of the Backside saddle traverse into...more untracked!
That of course called for a fourth lap, and this time we headed out the Backside traverse in full. It was by now tracked end to end, so we headed for Susie's Trees, which too were tracked out but not hammered by any means.
This dropped us all the way to Sunnyside, and we rode that to Cecret to get to Supreme. First ride out we headed out to Catherine's, and while there was good snow Acidchrist and I wanted more, so we followed the traverse line to skier's right of Rocky Point. We threaded the Rock Garden and went further right still, such that we were beyond Rocky Point and into Patsy Marley itself. As two others ahead of us pressed further still, Frank and I dropped into the trees, popping out onto a tumbling gully that ducked and swooped down to the top of the Albion chair...without a single other track along the entire route!
Score.
We rode Cecret again to meet back up with Marc_C and Pat, both of whom had passed on our little extra adventure. By now the skies had cleared, and I feared what the UV rays from a strong spring sun would do to our fresh snow. For our second Supreme run we headed through the Supreme Bowl gate, then followed the Challenger ropeline to traverse right below the Diving Board, then over to Tower 10 where Frank and I found still more untracked on the nose to skier's left of Supreme Challenge, while Pat and Marc_C skied the chute immediately to its skier's right.
By now we were all hungry, so we headed to Alf's for lunch before riding Sugarloaf again. Our destination was out the High T to North Rustler or Eagle's Nest, but we were sucked in by the lure of still untracked lines in Greeley Bowl. Pat and Marc_C dropped directly below Piss Pass, but Acidchrist and I headed further left to ski the bowl directly opposite the entrance to Stonecrusher. The UV had done its dirty work, though, and the southeast-facing line was rapidly turning to wallpaper paste. By the time we reached Greeley Hill, the two of us traversed left to hit the northeast-facing North Greeley, and found drier untracked snow on skier's left of the Snake Pit all the way down to the Transfer Tow.
Acidchrist and I were done. We arrived at the patio of Goldminer's Daughter just ahead of Pat and Marc_C, and the two of them headed up for more runs while Acidchrist and I finished with a 2 pm beer. 10,750 verts and 8 runs, all featuring untracked snow.
We're back to a 99-inch base. I plan to take a few runs after an early work day tomorrow afternoon, then hit it Saturday and Sunday. This new snow will spend a couple of days in the elephant snot stage before turning back into corn, so it may be groomers only now for a day or two.
I didn't take any action photos today, for there was no mood to stop.
Our storm was a bust, but only relatively speaking. The forecast had been for two to three feet of new snow, and an unexpected wind direction (northeast rather than northwest) kept snow totals down. Alta recorded a storm total of 18 inches by this morning, so Alta it was.
It wasn't blower, but that's a good thing, for it kept the refrozen sun crust pretty much hidden, except on the traverses. I'm guessing it was 8-10 percent. The good news was that all terrain gates remained closed yesterday during the storm, so Backside and Baldy Shoulder/Ballroom still held the full storm total untracked. It wasn't very busy, either, so I suspect that most SLV locals didn't realize that wonderful fact, and only noticed the four additional inches overnight and went to work instead.
I didn't. Neither did Marc_C nor Pat. I gave The Kid a hall pass from school. Liftlines lurker and former Canyons patroller Acidchrist is still in the neighborhood and would join us, but not until our third run as he blew out the sidewall on his beloved Stockli Stormrider DP and had to take them to the Lift House for repair.
What he missed were the best two runs of the morning. We were in the Collins liftline by 9:10, five minutes prior to opening, and headed straight for Backside. Yellow Trail was only lightly tracked. There were still oodles of untracked lines on Backside proper, and the four of us tore it up, a special untracked line for each of us.
We worked our way right to return to Sugarloaf. Just above the Sugarloaf Return, Marc_C popped a ski and couldn't find it. We were below him on the Return itself, so as he started digging we yelled up that benevolent souls that we are, we'd make another run and arrive to help him search thereafter. :wink:
As I stood for a second time at the saddle separating Backside from Yellow Trail, I watched the lemmings heading for Backside and looked down over the knoll beneath my feet and spotted...nothing. No tracks! I looked at Pat, and she agreed, and we pushed off into divine untracked snow. We both agreed that either one of these two runs by themselves made it worth blowing off work today, but the two of them together, well...there was no doubt that we'd made the right decision. We arrived in the gully to find Marc_C still searching for his ski. About 10 minutes later, doing a falling-leaf sideslip while probing the snow with my pole, I was sideslipping backward when I felt and heard a "clink" against something in the snow. I reached down and pulled up a shiny yellow CMH edition Volkl Explosiv. Found it!
Now that Marc_C had two skis again, we returned to Sugarloaf to lap Backside a third time. After waiting 5 minutes atop Collins, Acidchrist finally joined us. The Kid, whining about skinny skis that wouldn't glide (his Line Prophet 100s are being warrantied, and he's sold his Line Motherships, so he was on Rossi Scratch Sprayers, his park skis), headed down to GMD for a bite to eat while his skis were being waxed. We were thus still a party of four, and this time dropped skier's right of the Backside saddle traverse into...more untracked!
That of course called for a fourth lap, and this time we headed out the Backside traverse in full. It was by now tracked end to end, so we headed for Susie's Trees, which too were tracked out but not hammered by any means.
This dropped us all the way to Sunnyside, and we rode that to Cecret to get to Supreme. First ride out we headed out to Catherine's, and while there was good snow Acidchrist and I wanted more, so we followed the traverse line to skier's right of Rocky Point. We threaded the Rock Garden and went further right still, such that we were beyond Rocky Point and into Patsy Marley itself. As two others ahead of us pressed further still, Frank and I dropped into the trees, popping out onto a tumbling gully that ducked and swooped down to the top of the Albion chair...without a single other track along the entire route!
Score.
We rode Cecret again to meet back up with Marc_C and Pat, both of whom had passed on our little extra adventure. By now the skies had cleared, and I feared what the UV rays from a strong spring sun would do to our fresh snow. For our second Supreme run we headed through the Supreme Bowl gate, then followed the Challenger ropeline to traverse right below the Diving Board, then over to Tower 10 where Frank and I found still more untracked on the nose to skier's left of Supreme Challenge, while Pat and Marc_C skied the chute immediately to its skier's right.
By now we were all hungry, so we headed to Alf's for lunch before riding Sugarloaf again. Our destination was out the High T to North Rustler or Eagle's Nest, but we were sucked in by the lure of still untracked lines in Greeley Bowl. Pat and Marc_C dropped directly below Piss Pass, but Acidchrist and I headed further left to ski the bowl directly opposite the entrance to Stonecrusher. The UV had done its dirty work, though, and the southeast-facing line was rapidly turning to wallpaper paste. By the time we reached Greeley Hill, the two of us traversed left to hit the northeast-facing North Greeley, and found drier untracked snow on skier's left of the Snake Pit all the way down to the Transfer Tow.
Acidchrist and I were done. We arrived at the patio of Goldminer's Daughter just ahead of Pat and Marc_C, and the two of them headed up for more runs while Acidchrist and I finished with a 2 pm beer. 10,750 verts and 8 runs, all featuring untracked snow.
We're back to a 99-inch base. I plan to take a few runs after an early work day tomorrow afternoon, then hit it Saturday and Sunday. This new snow will spend a couple of days in the elephant snot stage before turning back into corn, so it may be groomers only now for a day or two.
I didn't take any action photos today, for there was no mood to stop.
