Day 67: Powder day, including one of the best runs of the year
Alta picked up 16 inches of 6% snow on Wednesday, but was closed Monday through Thursday this week. With nary a truant officer in sight, The Kid was granted a hall pass to ski today for what was likely to be the season's last Alta powder day. We met up with Marc_C and Pat for the opening bell at Collins.
On the ride up it immediately became apparent that we'd have to play our cards right on aspects today. I'd figured that strong spring sun yesterday would've made Thursday's powder more heavy. What I hadn't expected was that it would freeze into a solid breakable crust that wouldn't soften under today's overcast skies. For powder, that meant that we'd have to stay on north-facing aspects where the crust was minimal to non-existent.
Alta groomed very little prior to today's opening -- just the usual suspects like Mambo, Main Street, Low Boy, Roller Coaster and Devil's Elbow. While there was a lineup for the first chair on Collins this morning, it really wasn't very busy, which meant that the untracked lines would stay that way through most of the day.
The Baldy Shoulder/Ballroom gate opened while we ascended on our first lift ride, so that's right where we headed. Marc_C confessed as we passed through the gate that he expected "elephant snot," but instead what we found was delightfully creamy untracked powder, perfect for the high-speed arcs that both The Kid and I laid down right near the Baldy Shoulder/Harold's ropeline. We crossed Main Street into the trees "across the street" where I had an entire chute all to myself - no tracks. Yee-haa! Once you got down into flatter terrain above the angle station, though, the crust immediately appeared without warning. As Marc_C said, you'd be skiing along "fat, dumb and happy" in the tree shadows when suddenly, "Yow!" - there it was.
It was so good up above, though, we did it again.
I'd been watching the first few guinea pigs hit Jitterbug from the Tower 10 traverse, and it looked dry and reasonably crust-free. We wrapped into the extreme left edge of Fred's Trees from upper Mambo and found pretty dry untracked, then continued all the way out the Tower 10 traverse to lower Jitterbug. Great stuff up higher, but again as it flattened near the bottom it got crusty again. Overall a good call, however.
We were going to try it from the High T, thin as it was up there, but then we noticed that the sign for Devil's Castle had been moved to "open." We hurried down a cruiser via Devil's Elbow and Rollercoaster to ride Sugarloaf to get to the goods.
Sidestepping up Devil's Castle was a bear on the Goliaths -- those things are just so honkin' huge that they collect large amounts of snow on the topskins while sidestepping. Ugh. I think that it really took the wind out of my sails, but it turned out to be well worth the effort.
Marc_C and Pat dropped in relatively early. The Kid and I trudged on, figuring that the wall at the far end would have shadowed the snow through most if not all of the day yesterday. A rock band is now preventing one from skiing the middle cut. Most struck out along the highest line, but exhausted by efforts to that point I instead decided to set the low cut. Doing so, and trudging across the shelf meant that I reached the wall only about 8 or 10 turns below the top anyway.
Our hunch had been correct. That's one long vert out there all the way down to the Cecret lift, and only a half dozen tracks decorated the 150 to 200 acres of prime terrain. It was a long, burning run through untracked dry snow the whole way, easily earning its distinction as one of my best runs of the year...on closing weekend.
We all regrouped again at Sugarloaf and headed for another Ballroom run through what was by now chowder to get to Watson Shelter for lunch, where we picked up Jeff. After lunch we all skied down to Collins to head for Baldy Shoulder.
Marc_C and Pat dropped in between Harold's and Tombstone. Jeff, The Kid and I continued into Armpit in search of more lightly tracked snow. This one run, however, convinced all of us that it was time to quit, even though it was barely past 1 pm. We were all exhausted, and with two days left to the weekend we needed to conserve some energy for the grand finale.
I needed toothpicks for my eyelids on the drive home. Upon arrival, I slumped into the couch and awoke three hours later.
Alta picked up 16 inches of 6% snow on Wednesday, but was closed Monday through Thursday this week. With nary a truant officer in sight, The Kid was granted a hall pass to ski today for what was likely to be the season's last Alta powder day. We met up with Marc_C and Pat for the opening bell at Collins.
On the ride up it immediately became apparent that we'd have to play our cards right on aspects today. I'd figured that strong spring sun yesterday would've made Thursday's powder more heavy. What I hadn't expected was that it would freeze into a solid breakable crust that wouldn't soften under today's overcast skies. For powder, that meant that we'd have to stay on north-facing aspects where the crust was minimal to non-existent.
Alta groomed very little prior to today's opening -- just the usual suspects like Mambo, Main Street, Low Boy, Roller Coaster and Devil's Elbow. While there was a lineup for the first chair on Collins this morning, it really wasn't very busy, which meant that the untracked lines would stay that way through most of the day.
The Baldy Shoulder/Ballroom gate opened while we ascended on our first lift ride, so that's right where we headed. Marc_C confessed as we passed through the gate that he expected "elephant snot," but instead what we found was delightfully creamy untracked powder, perfect for the high-speed arcs that both The Kid and I laid down right near the Baldy Shoulder/Harold's ropeline. We crossed Main Street into the trees "across the street" where I had an entire chute all to myself - no tracks. Yee-haa! Once you got down into flatter terrain above the angle station, though, the crust immediately appeared without warning. As Marc_C said, you'd be skiing along "fat, dumb and happy" in the tree shadows when suddenly, "Yow!" - there it was.
It was so good up above, though, we did it again.
I'd been watching the first few guinea pigs hit Jitterbug from the Tower 10 traverse, and it looked dry and reasonably crust-free. We wrapped into the extreme left edge of Fred's Trees from upper Mambo and found pretty dry untracked, then continued all the way out the Tower 10 traverse to lower Jitterbug. Great stuff up higher, but again as it flattened near the bottom it got crusty again. Overall a good call, however.
We were going to try it from the High T, thin as it was up there, but then we noticed that the sign for Devil's Castle had been moved to "open." We hurried down a cruiser via Devil's Elbow and Rollercoaster to ride Sugarloaf to get to the goods.
Sidestepping up Devil's Castle was a bear on the Goliaths -- those things are just so honkin' huge that they collect large amounts of snow on the topskins while sidestepping. Ugh. I think that it really took the wind out of my sails, but it turned out to be well worth the effort.
Marc_C and Pat dropped in relatively early. The Kid and I trudged on, figuring that the wall at the far end would have shadowed the snow through most if not all of the day yesterday. A rock band is now preventing one from skiing the middle cut. Most struck out along the highest line, but exhausted by efforts to that point I instead decided to set the low cut. Doing so, and trudging across the shelf meant that I reached the wall only about 8 or 10 turns below the top anyway.
Our hunch had been correct. That's one long vert out there all the way down to the Cecret lift, and only a half dozen tracks decorated the 150 to 200 acres of prime terrain. It was a long, burning run through untracked dry snow the whole way, easily earning its distinction as one of my best runs of the year...on closing weekend.
We all regrouped again at Sugarloaf and headed for another Ballroom run through what was by now chowder to get to Watson Shelter for lunch, where we picked up Jeff. After lunch we all skied down to Collins to head for Baldy Shoulder.
Marc_C and Pat dropped in between Harold's and Tombstone. Jeff, The Kid and I continued into Armpit in search of more lightly tracked snow. This one run, however, convinced all of us that it was time to quit, even though it was barely past 1 pm. We were all exhausted, and with two days left to the weekend we needed to conserve some energy for the grand finale.
I needed toothpicks for my eyelids on the drive home. Upon arrival, I slumped into the couch and awoke three hours later.
Attachments
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01 alta harolds-ballroom ropeline 070420.jpg
