Alta, UT 4/3/2010

[Admin]

Day 49: Spring skiing be damned!

I wasn't able to get out for Thursday's or Friday's deep powderfests, but today sure beat sloppy seconds! Alta picked up about 7 inches overnight and the wind was honking. Cold, too -- things never wetted down at all. Add to that the fact that Alta had a power outage for most of the day yesterday and things were skiing mighty darned fine -- 7" of new on a billiard table-smooth subsurface.

It was one of these kinds of days:

Spent the day with Dale, Pat, Skidog and Mira and Sima, both visiting from NYC and staying at the Auberge Guido. Honestly, it was rock star skiing -- I haven't felt that dialed into my skiing in weeks. Highlights included Restaurant Hill, which is where all of the action shots attached below were taken, and Back 40 which was completely and utterly untracked.

Soaked in the hot tub and now heading to the grocery for filet mignon and lobster tails. A good day, indeed!

 

[tirolerpeter]

^^^^ \/ \/ \/ ^^^^^ My friends and I must have followed in your tracks (actually, a little to the left and right of those tracks) a bit later in the day. It looks like there is more to come in the next couple of days !

 

[kingslug]

ABout 30 inches...think I might come out Tuesday...

 

[powdurdog]

Friday (4/2) was my last day of a week at Alta. Got to the base of Collins right at 9:15 to get some first tracks on the fresh powder. Boarded the chair around 9:20. About a minute later the lift stopped. A few minutes go by, and I start to get worried. As Admin mentioned, turned out to be a massive power outage at Alta. I was stuck on the lift for over an hour before they finally switched it to diesel backup and inched the chairs up to unload us at the angle. Sunnyside stayed open throughout, so the whole crowd migrated there mid-morning. Wildcat was started around 10:30, but it obviously can't handle the large crowds. By late morning, Sugerloaf was open, and Collins finally opened early-afternoon. So other than an hour of my life lost on a chairlift, the rest of the day was fine.

One surprise was when I skiied Yellow Trail early afternoon. It had only been open an hour or so (after being closed for multiple days with the storm), so I was expecting untracked and deep powder goodness. There was still plenty of untracked to be had, and waist deep powder, but surprisingly the snow was quite heavy. Maybe the sun baking it? I actually had more fun later in the day on Highboy and Eagles Nest--they were both much more heavily trafficked, but their snow was noticeably lighter.

Didn't make it over to Backside, so I'm not sure if that would have skied better than Yellow Trail.

Still, all-in-all a very nice day.

 

[Marc_C]

One surprise was when I skiied Yellow Trail early afternoon. It had only been open an hour or so (after being closed for multiple days with the storm), so I was expecting untracked and deep powder goodness. There was still plenty of untracked to be had, and waist deep powder, but surprisingly the snow was quite heavy. Maybe the sun baking it? I actually had more fun later in the day on Highboy and Eagles Nest--they were both much more heavily trafficked, but their snow was noticeably lighter.

Didn't make it over to Backside, so I'm not sure if that would have skied better than Yellow Trail.

Yellow Trail faces almost due south, so even the slightest sun or merely a lot of UV punching through the clouds can make it heavy and damp very quickly. In contrast, Highboy faces NNW and the Nest is N-NNE, hence they both stay colder and drier. Backside faces mostly east with a little SE component, so it often skis better than Yellow Trail. This changes a bit from mid-spring onward, where the early - mid-day sun is more intense than in mid-winter.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Backside's sun effect is seasonal from the primary E exposure. In January it's nearly as reliable as the north faces. On my early March trips I've often seen spring conditions with the disproportionate warm weather I've had. However, this year it was cooler so Backside still had winter snow (though thoroughly chopped up) 3 days after the last storm. In April I suspect you need to get at Backside the first day with new snow, but it will still preserve longer than Yellow Trail.

 

[Admin]

The trick to Yellow Trail on days like that is to drop early, before the primary face, and then bang a left onto a NNE aspect.

 

[powdurdog]

Thanks for the tips guys. I was debating continuing the hike over to backside, but last year when I skiied it after a recent storm (again, on an early-April day) it was littered with avalanche debris and almost unskiable. However last week when I got down to Alf's I noticed that backside looked pretty smooth, so it would have probably been the better bet for last week.