Alta, UT - Easter Sunday - 4/12/09

[Admin]

Day 55: Solitude crowds, Alta terrain

With a total of 7 inches reported overnight, even though I suspected that the snow would be dense I had visions of skiing bumps covered with snow, feeling the crunchiness beneath with each turn. Boy was I wrong!

Somehow the wind and yesterday's wet snow and graupel filled everything in baby-bottom smooth.

We couldn't get over how good it was, and honestly, there was no one there. Even fewer folks than Saturday! By the time I took my last run around noon there were only six tracks heading into Eagle's Nest! And they all went right, so of course we went left...

Before that, though, Bobby Danger, Skidog, Marc_C, Amy and I had run after run of smooth untracked bliss.

In mid-April, no less! I've never skied the entire length of the High T without a single whoop-de-doo. Wildcat, West Rustler, Greeley Hill, East Greeley, Backside...we hit them all. We hooked up with Salida and his colleague Justin for one run, and Pat showed up right as I was leaving, wrongly believing that this morning would be worth missing.

It was probably worth sticking around to see Devil's Castle open, but the snow down low was already turning to wallpaper paste when I left, even on north-facing. This morning was where it was at!

Today's video features Skidog, Salida, Justin, yours truly and of course Bobby Danger.

The video:

[skitube2]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/modules/crpVideo/pnmedia/videos/1239577580_2009-04-12_Alta.flv[/skitube2]

 

[Admin]

Oh, and this coming week looks even better:

Statement as of 4:04 PM MDT on April 12, 2009

... Slow moving storm to affect region Monday night through much of
the work week...

A slow moving... cold and moist Pacific storm will arrive across
the Great Basin early this week... and remain over the Rocky
Mountain region through late this week.

Rain will develop initially across the northern half of the area
Monday night... with snow levels above 8000 feet. Ahead of the
storm... gusty southwest winds will develop across central and
southern Utah Tuesday afternoon.

A cold front will cross the area from the west Tuesday
night... spreading precipitation across the area and lowering snow
levels to the valley floor by Wednesday.

As the system finally begins moving to our east Thursday... wrap
around moisture will bring additional snows to the northern
mountains potentially into Friday.

This long duration storm has a high potential of bringing
significant mountain snow to northern Utah. Those in the valleys
have the potential of seeing accumulating snowfall during the
middle of the week as temperatures fall well below normal.

Monitor NOAA Weather Radio and local media for updates to the
weather forecast and potential watches... warnings and advisories.

 

[rfarren]

The conditions are nice, but seriously, nobody being there might be the most awesome thing I've ever seen. That's just incredible! I guess there are advantages to skiing next to a relatively religious community on easter.

 

[Admin]

The conditions are nice, but seriously, nobody being there might be the most awesome thing I've ever seen. That's just incredible! I guess there are advantages to skiing next to a relatively religious community on easter.

Members of said religious community constitute a ridiculously small fraction of our local skiing population. Most jaded locals anticipated the same thing that I did and stayed home. Combined with the fact that there are few tourists still coming this late in the season despite the Easter holiday, and you get the end result that you see in the video.

 

[Harvey]

Most excellent.

Wish I knew the cast well enough to know who was who in the vid.

 

[Admin]

Wish I knew the cast well enough to know who was who in the vid.

Lately I've been trying to group scenes of the same skier wherever practical. I did that in this vid.

• 00:35-01:42 Bobby Danger (easily identified by a lack of turns)
• 01:43-02:57 Skidog (easily identified by...well, easily identified :wink: )
• 02:58-03:14 Salida (easily identified by the loudest ski clothing, unless his brother Grizz is in the video)
• 03:15-03:31 Justin (best damned skier in the video)
• 03:32-04:11 Admin (easily identified by his tentative style)
• 04:12-end Bobby Danger (natch!)

 

[Marc_C]

I guess there are advantages to skiing next to a relatively religious community on easter.

That has nothing to do with it. Remember that the Mormon concept of Jesus and the meaning of the resurrection is different than the mainstream Christian concept. As such, Easter is pretty much a non-event for Mormons.

 

[jtran10]

Looks like a lot more fun than VT today

 

[Tony Crocker]

That has nothing to do with it. Remember that the Mormon concept of Jesus and the meaning of the resurrection is different than the mainstream Christian concept. As such, Easter is pretty much a non-event for Mormons.

On our March 7 tour of the new Mormon temple in Draper, Richard and I observed you never see a cross in a Mormon church or temple. Our guide Allene (met at Chatter Creek, an exception to admin's generalization: a devotee of BOTH of Utah's religions!) explained that the Mormons "celebrate Jesus' life and think it's strange to celebrate his death." Perhaps MarcC could elaborate on Easter though.

The snow in that video looks just like what we skied on Chair 5 at Mammoth Friday morning. Except that Chair 5 was completely pillaged by 10AM.

 

[Bobby Danger]

the energizer bunny hasn't got anything over this guy ! just stay away from him he'll rip your lungs out jim! from a terminally INTERMEDIATE . excellent weekend skiing here in MECCA !!!! skied four runs at snowbird in the afternoon one great scott- two north chutes- and primrose all tram serviced. mineral basin closed due to avalanche danger. skied back to alta via the armpit gate on baldy. the snow on upper tombstone in the late afternoon was un-sun affected. probably going to snowbasin on wed. for one last pow day as they close this sunday. i've heard nothing about extending the season.

 

[Admin]

FYI the latest forecast I heard this morning for this week's storm is another 25-40". \/

 

[Marc_C]

Our guide Allene (met at Chatter Creek, an exception to admin's generalization: a devotee of BOTH of Utah's religions!) explained that the Mormons "celebrate Jesus' life and think it's strange to celebrate his death." Perhaps MarcC could elaborate on Easter though.

Probably not the best forum to discuss this, but, by my understanding, Allene pretty much encapsulates it in a brevity of words. Some Mormons celebrate, some do not, and everything in between. There's a major annual Easter pageant at a Mormon temple in Arizona. At other ward houses, it's barely mentioned in passing. Overall though, it appears that Easter is simply not as big a deal as it is in other Christian religions*. Yes, there's plenty on the net - start with googling <mormon easter>.

[*: whether Mormonism is indeed a Christian religion is a whole different issue - a source of major contention, depending on your beliefs.]

[Disclaimer 1: I am not Mormon, nor any other religion, and am totally ambivalent about the existence of god, but dislike both the agnostic and atheist labels. The former being an atheist without conviction and the latter believing in the non-existence as fervently as the religious believe in the existence.]

[Disclaimer 2: I try to pay as little attention to religion and theology as possible, and possess no real expertise, but learned early on that like it or not, moving to Utah constitutes a graduate level crash course in comparative religion. Google is my co-pilot.]

 

[rfarren]

I subscribe to the religion of "Ski-more-mans."