Days 43-44.
Saturday, 2/5/11: Who turned on the fan?!
I arrived at Goldminer's Daughter Saturday morning as graupel was flying sideways. As we booted up inside Goldminer's we noticed that they were having trouble deicing the rime from Collins -- so much trouble, in fact, that they were ferrying patrollers up the mountain on the back of snowcats.
We headed for Wildcat, which with Collins on delay was the only reasonable route out of the Wildcat base area, and a cranky bullwheel meant that they were loading every other chair. Combine the two and the Wildcat line was quite long.
The wind was even stronger halfway up (and kept the Tram and all of Mineral Basin closed all day at Snowbird, where the same rime issues delayed Peruvian). I was certain that this would be a three-run day.
I could not, however, have been more wrong. While Alta reported six inches of graupel by the end of the day, I measured more like 10" in a sheltered location low on the mountain at the end of the day. It was thick and creamy-dreamy.
On the first run Westward Ho was fabulous but Bridge Shot was scoured clean. We then opted for a bus run to give crews more time to get Collins running, which was a strategy that worked perfectly. The rest of the morning was spent heading out the High T to runs in the North Rustler area. Visibility on the High T was atrocious, with wind gusts that would reduce visibility to less than 10 feet. I'd arrive each time at Piss Pass with a screaming ice cream headache and a sandblasted left side of my face, but on the east side of the ridge the wind was thankfully well shaded. I was skiing with Kingslug, Skidog, Bobby Danger, Skidog's East Coast visitors TJ and Eric. Our group was unintentionally wigging out Kingslug, who finally succumbed when we dropped into High Nowhere (not to be confused with Eddie's High Nowhere) right from the top of the nipple. Here the wind had scoured the new snow right down to the rain crust for a hundred verts or so through trees and rock bands. TJ jokingly "voted Kingslug off the island." :lol:
The day just kept getting better and better as it wore on. We went upstairs in Goldminer's for a pizza-and-pitcher lunch, and convened with Pat and Amy as well as three of TJ's co-workers who were coincidentally visiting at the same time: Justin, Jessica and Theresa. We all skied together for the afternoon, repeating both Wildcat and Collins runs.
In fact, those were the only two lifts I rode all day. And for once, I made it to 4 pm before stripping off my ski boots and heading down the canyon. Here's our GPS track for the day:
http://www.mountaindynamics.com/en/sdmap.php?tid=15227
Amy had a bunch of us over for dinner Saturday night, including Dale and Pat, Skidog, TJ, Eric, Bobby Danger and more. Marc_C and spouse showed up for dessert following their annual Chinese New Year's feast. The food was fabulous, the company was even better as we hatched plans for Sunday over whiskey and cake for dessert.
Saturday, 2/5/11: Like a fireworks display.
That was Marc_C's analogy. At first I was perplexed, but eventually it all made sense. A fireworks display, of course, starts off with sporadic shells, some spectacular and some subdued, before it finally ends in a crushing crescendo of spectacular blasts that leave the crowd in awe. That was our day on Sunday.
Alta picked up a couple of inches of light, dry snow to top the graupel from the day before. Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder remained closed. Backside wasn't scheduled to open today, either, but we arrived atop Collins right as the gate opened. We couldn't have timed it better. Yellow Trail was untracked. So was the middle of Backside proper. It was so good that we opted to ski its full vertical, but we were caught off guard by the rollover to the lower half that had been wind scoured clean to the icy base. Aside from that momentary blemish the run skied exceptionally well top to bottom.
It was so good that we went back for a second lap through Susie's Trees, bumping into mbaydala en route at the base of Collins. Susie's delivered more of the same untracked that we'd enjoyed on Backside. It was then time to move on to Supreme via Sunnyside and Cecret.
A run through Back Forty wasn't quite what I'd hoped for, but we swung wide onto the last pitch leading to the Albion Flats and found the untracked that we'd been searching. We then decided on a powder run out to Catherine's, but TJ and Eric decided to maximize their laps with Skidog ahead of their afternoon flight. Amy, Theresa, Kingslug and I continued on to Catherine's on our own to find the ridge on the far side of Last Chance somewhat wind scoured, but finishing up on lower Patsy Marley provided more untracked goodness (we bumped into mbaydala out there with his visitors, too). So good, in fact, that we took an extra lap on Sunnysiode to hit othe Garage Aspens before heading to GMD for lunch.
Coming back out for the afternoon we were joined by Marc_C and Dale. We headed for Keyhole, which skied about as good as it gets. Soft, loose snow prevailed top to bottom, even through the chute. While waiting for a ride back to Alta, however, we found out that much to my surprise, ASP opened Comma Chute. This was something our visitors had to experience. When we reached the narrow ridge dropping into the chute proper, however, Amy found that sometimes the mind prevails over matter, but after a few minutes of coaching she proudly found her way through it and we skied down into Snowbird.
En route back we learned that Theresa had never skied High Boy on previous Alta visits, and being an Alta rite of passage we had to ski that, too. The top 100 feet was bulletproof wind scour, but below there it was smooth, edgeable and fun. We finished the day with a more relaxing trip down Greeley Bowl to Greeley Hill at 4:15 p.m., akin to the couple of leftover shells fired into the sky after the fireworks grand finale has already finished.
I forgot to turn on the GPS logging for the first few runs, but here's the rest of our day:
http://www.mountaindynamics.com/en/sdmap.php?tid=15228
Saturday, 2/5/11: Who turned on the fan?!
I arrived at Goldminer's Daughter Saturday morning as graupel was flying sideways. As we booted up inside Goldminer's we noticed that they were having trouble deicing the rime from Collins -- so much trouble, in fact, that they were ferrying patrollers up the mountain on the back of snowcats.
We headed for Wildcat, which with Collins on delay was the only reasonable route out of the Wildcat base area, and a cranky bullwheel meant that they were loading every other chair. Combine the two and the Wildcat line was quite long.
The wind was even stronger halfway up (and kept the Tram and all of Mineral Basin closed all day at Snowbird, where the same rime issues delayed Peruvian). I was certain that this would be a three-run day.
I could not, however, have been more wrong. While Alta reported six inches of graupel by the end of the day, I measured more like 10" in a sheltered location low on the mountain at the end of the day. It was thick and creamy-dreamy.
On the first run Westward Ho was fabulous but Bridge Shot was scoured clean. We then opted for a bus run to give crews more time to get Collins running, which was a strategy that worked perfectly. The rest of the morning was spent heading out the High T to runs in the North Rustler area. Visibility on the High T was atrocious, with wind gusts that would reduce visibility to less than 10 feet. I'd arrive each time at Piss Pass with a screaming ice cream headache and a sandblasted left side of my face, but on the east side of the ridge the wind was thankfully well shaded. I was skiing with Kingslug, Skidog, Bobby Danger, Skidog's East Coast visitors TJ and Eric. Our group was unintentionally wigging out Kingslug, who finally succumbed when we dropped into High Nowhere (not to be confused with Eddie's High Nowhere) right from the top of the nipple. Here the wind had scoured the new snow right down to the rain crust for a hundred verts or so through trees and rock bands. TJ jokingly "voted Kingslug off the island." :lol:
The day just kept getting better and better as it wore on. We went upstairs in Goldminer's for a pizza-and-pitcher lunch, and convened with Pat and Amy as well as three of TJ's co-workers who were coincidentally visiting at the same time: Justin, Jessica and Theresa. We all skied together for the afternoon, repeating both Wildcat and Collins runs.
In fact, those were the only two lifts I rode all day. And for once, I made it to 4 pm before stripping off my ski boots and heading down the canyon. Here's our GPS track for the day:
http://www.mountaindynamics.com/en/sdmap.php?tid=15227
Amy had a bunch of us over for dinner Saturday night, including Dale and Pat, Skidog, TJ, Eric, Bobby Danger and more. Marc_C and spouse showed up for dessert following their annual Chinese New Year's feast. The food was fabulous, the company was even better as we hatched plans for Sunday over whiskey and cake for dessert.
Saturday, 2/5/11: Like a fireworks display.
That was Marc_C's analogy. At first I was perplexed, but eventually it all made sense. A fireworks display, of course, starts off with sporadic shells, some spectacular and some subdued, before it finally ends in a crushing crescendo of spectacular blasts that leave the crowd in awe. That was our day on Sunday.
Alta picked up a couple of inches of light, dry snow to top the graupel from the day before. Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder remained closed. Backside wasn't scheduled to open today, either, but we arrived atop Collins right as the gate opened. We couldn't have timed it better. Yellow Trail was untracked. So was the middle of Backside proper. It was so good that we opted to ski its full vertical, but we were caught off guard by the rollover to the lower half that had been wind scoured clean to the icy base. Aside from that momentary blemish the run skied exceptionally well top to bottom.
It was so good that we went back for a second lap through Susie's Trees, bumping into mbaydala en route at the base of Collins. Susie's delivered more of the same untracked that we'd enjoyed on Backside. It was then time to move on to Supreme via Sunnyside and Cecret.
A run through Back Forty wasn't quite what I'd hoped for, but we swung wide onto the last pitch leading to the Albion Flats and found the untracked that we'd been searching. We then decided on a powder run out to Catherine's, but TJ and Eric decided to maximize their laps with Skidog ahead of their afternoon flight. Amy, Theresa, Kingslug and I continued on to Catherine's on our own to find the ridge on the far side of Last Chance somewhat wind scoured, but finishing up on lower Patsy Marley provided more untracked goodness (we bumped into mbaydala out there with his visitors, too). So good, in fact, that we took an extra lap on Sunnysiode to hit othe Garage Aspens before heading to GMD for lunch.
Coming back out for the afternoon we were joined by Marc_C and Dale. We headed for Keyhole, which skied about as good as it gets. Soft, loose snow prevailed top to bottom, even through the chute. While waiting for a ride back to Alta, however, we found out that much to my surprise, ASP opened Comma Chute. This was something our visitors had to experience. When we reached the narrow ridge dropping into the chute proper, however, Amy found that sometimes the mind prevails over matter, but after a few minutes of coaching she proudly found her way through it and we skied down into Snowbird.
En route back we learned that Theresa had never skied High Boy on previous Alta visits, and being an Alta rite of passage we had to ski that, too. The top 100 feet was bulletproof wind scour, but below there it was smooth, edgeable and fun. We finished the day with a more relaxing trip down Greeley Bowl to Greeley Hill at 4:15 p.m., akin to the couple of leftover shells fired into the sky after the fireworks grand finale has already finished.
I forgot to turn on the GPS logging for the first few runs, but here's the rest of our day:
http://www.mountaindynamics.com/en/sdmap.php?tid=15228
