Day 65: Big vert day...for me anyway.
Met up at 10:30 with new Utahan Matt, who arrived in his truck from NJ only this past Wednesday. We joined Bob Dangerous and headed up.
We were waiting for things to soften but with increasing overcast skies I had doubts that the sun could do its trick today. Our first few runs were top-to-bottom high speed cruisers off Sugarloaf, and while things were softening a bit on Extrovert and south-facing portions of Devil's Elbow, calling it "soft" would've been an exaggeration.
Bob headed for a couple of runs in Mineral Basin at Snowbird while Matt and I headed for Collins -- not because it'd be soft, but rather because Sugarloaf cruisers were getting a bit monotonous and I needed some diversity. Sure enough, west-facing stuff was still rock-hard cord. By choosing routes carefully and skiing the sunny side of the trail I found better snow on lower Mambo and Main Street. We finished off with one more groomer off Wildcat Ridge before meeting up with Bob again.
My hopes of soft snow were diminishing. We had a 12:30 lazy lunch at Watson Shelter, but after lunch things surprised us by starting to actually soften -- a bit later than normal, but finally things were coming together, as evidenced by a Backside run that was actually decent. Bob went back to Mineral and Matt and I found the snow of the day in untracked sun-softened corn on Greeley Hill. Feeling brave, I decided to show him more of the mountain and headed to North Rustler.
That turned out to be a mistake, at least at the crux where one threads between the cliff bands. Even though it's been bony there throughout the season, today was even worse than I thought: bare mud, rock and tree roots in abundance. As I sidestepped through the crux Matt came barreling through like a bull in a china closet, sliding across the mud and rocks to land in the snow below. How he didn't rip an edge out of his Salomon 1080 Guns is beyond me. In fact, they barely looked scuffed! All the work was worth the effort, however, as the snow both above and below the crux was divine.
I went back to the truck to swap the Movement Goliaths for the G3 Reverends, and headed back out the High T to get to Eagle's Nest. Steep dry chalk sloughed between the trees as we descended -- great stuff! One more trip out the T to introduce Matt to West Rustler via Jitterbug, and we called it a day at 3:30 pm, 14 runs and 20,770 verts after we started.
Pictures of the day: Take yesterday's pictures, and add an overcast sky.
Plans are already in the works for our Alta Closing Day party next Sunday. There are rumors of a potentially significant storm for Wednesday/Thursday, and Alta is closed Monday-Thursday this week, so perhaps a mental health day on Friday is in the cards.
Met up at 10:30 with new Utahan Matt, who arrived in his truck from NJ only this past Wednesday. We joined Bob Dangerous and headed up.
We were waiting for things to soften but with increasing overcast skies I had doubts that the sun could do its trick today. Our first few runs were top-to-bottom high speed cruisers off Sugarloaf, and while things were softening a bit on Extrovert and south-facing portions of Devil's Elbow, calling it "soft" would've been an exaggeration.
Bob headed for a couple of runs in Mineral Basin at Snowbird while Matt and I headed for Collins -- not because it'd be soft, but rather because Sugarloaf cruisers were getting a bit monotonous and I needed some diversity. Sure enough, west-facing stuff was still rock-hard cord. By choosing routes carefully and skiing the sunny side of the trail I found better snow on lower Mambo and Main Street. We finished off with one more groomer off Wildcat Ridge before meeting up with Bob again.
My hopes of soft snow were diminishing. We had a 12:30 lazy lunch at Watson Shelter, but after lunch things surprised us by starting to actually soften -- a bit later than normal, but finally things were coming together, as evidenced by a Backside run that was actually decent. Bob went back to Mineral and Matt and I found the snow of the day in untracked sun-softened corn on Greeley Hill. Feeling brave, I decided to show him more of the mountain and headed to North Rustler.
That turned out to be a mistake, at least at the crux where one threads between the cliff bands. Even though it's been bony there throughout the season, today was even worse than I thought: bare mud, rock and tree roots in abundance. As I sidestepped through the crux Matt came barreling through like a bull in a china closet, sliding across the mud and rocks to land in the snow below. How he didn't rip an edge out of his Salomon 1080 Guns is beyond me. In fact, they barely looked scuffed! All the work was worth the effort, however, as the snow both above and below the crux was divine.
I went back to the truck to swap the Movement Goliaths for the G3 Reverends, and headed back out the High T to get to Eagle's Nest. Steep dry chalk sloughed between the trees as we descended -- great stuff! One more trip out the T to introduce Matt to West Rustler via Jitterbug, and we called it a day at 3:30 pm, 14 runs and 20,770 verts after we started.
Pictures of the day: Take yesterday's pictures, and add an overcast sky.
Plans are already in the works for our Alta Closing Day party next Sunday. There are rumors of a potentially significant storm for Wednesday/Thursday, and Alta is closed Monday-Thursday this week, so perhaps a mental health day on Friday is in the cards.
I had to go through...I am amazed as well that there was no damage to those edges or bases for that matter...