Day 48: Sun 'n fun.
More bright sunshine today with Skidog, Bobby Danger, Marc_C, The Other Bobby D and Tele Jon. We started out at Alta, per usual, but quickly moved over to Mineral Basin to find warm sun as the day started off a little chilly. In fact, I took two laps on Devil's Elbow to warm up while the others went first into Collins Gulch before rejoining me for the second run. I marveled at how empty the place seemed to be, but I was dressed better for later in the day than for the start, and while once in Mineral I felt a good deal warmer, I still stuck to the groomer after finding skin-crusted snow off-piste and chunkiness on stuff groomed 48 hours earlier. I was also feeling the effects of the full day yesterday at Snowbasin, so when Bobby Danger wanted to ski Silver Fox I took one look at the chunky bumps and decided to ski around after sampling the stuff between the Chip's switchbacks -- it was somewhat stiff.
We headed back up Peruvian and through the tunnel back to Mineral. Back up MBE, from Hidden Peak we marveled at the cajones of the three who laid tracks on Germicide, to looker's right of Pipeline where one screw up would've resulted in an unsurvivable 2000-foot plunge across the cliffs directly below. :shock: After banging off a few turns they headed north along the ridgeline of West Twin and eventually drained into Whoopsie's from above.
Pushing off down Path to Paradise, which was a congested disaster this morning, the others tried Hyena Ridge as I headed out Path to Paradise to Toad Hill. They found good snow on top but crusty stuff lower down as I skied cut-up loose snow and concluded on the Powder Paradise groomer. On the next lap the others followed and we went all the way out to the pass between Bookends and Sunday Cliffs to look down and across into Mary Ellen Gulch, an area that Bobby Danger refers to as "FutureBird" due to Snowbird's future expansion plans.
While most of the others skied the main line down, I opted to work skier's right beneath the Sunday Cliffs themselves and found lightly tracked to untracked snow on the right turns, and sastrugi on the left turns. Weird.
We headed straight to Baldy Express and back into Alta for our usual Sunday lunch at the Rustler Lodge.
Control work on Baldy wrapped up in the a.m., and we figured that lunch would give Livin' The Dream the perfect amount of time to soften. While there Sam called, too -- he was up with his son Dean and I haven't had the pleasure of skiing with them all winter. They decided to join us, which would require us to ride up Collins and ski down to and ride up Sugarloaf, but by the time we got there Dean was the only one still waiting as Sam had taken a head start on the climb. Bobby Danger was curious about the snow conditions along the walk up the Snowbird side, so he went on ahead as well as the rest of us began the bootpack up Baldy.
Now, those who know realize that the climb is much easier from the Snowbird side -- longer, but easier. From Hidden Peak, accessing Baldy requires a hike up the long but steady Peruvian Gulch ridgeline. From Alta, however, it starts with a brutally steep bootpack before easing into a long, shallow grade the rest of the way to the summit. Vertical gained is nearly identical, but that steep initial climb from Sugarloaf Pass typically wipes you out.
For some reason, though, it didn't today. On top of that, this was the first time all season that I didn't show up for skiing with a backpack, either on me or in the truck, so I had to shoulder my skis. But today's climb went fairly well. We eventually all joined up on Baldy with Perla's on one side, and LTD on the other.
Most of us debated which to ski. The two offered radically different experiences, with Perla's covered in soft, chalky sluff and LTD draped in seamless corn. Add to that the fact that Perla's is one of only two Baldy Chutes skiable by mere mortals that I have yet to descend, and I was leaning that way. Bobby Danger, however, was determined to ski LTD and the rest of us eventually relented and headed south.
We finished our run in Mineral by dropping the narrow chute between the Chamonix Cliffs directly beneath the Baldy Express chair. This was thick snow that formed two-foot roller balls with each turn, but still provided a fun run. As The Other Bobby D commented, "Thank God for fat skis."
I rode back up Baldy Express with Sam, Dean and Marc_C while the others hopped on MBE for one more run out Hyena Ridge. Our group of four returned to Wildcat base via Tombstone 1 for more soft, sifted chalk before Marc_C and I called it a day at 3:30.
Apologies for the crappy photo quality, but as I wasn't skiing with a pack today I opted to try out a Panasonic point-and-shoot. The color balance was horrific, and even in "snow" white balance mode the pics had a nasty blue hue. I spent 30 minutes trying to balance the colors a bit better before publishing, with mixed results.
More bright sunshine today with Skidog, Bobby Danger, Marc_C, The Other Bobby D and Tele Jon. We started out at Alta, per usual, but quickly moved over to Mineral Basin to find warm sun as the day started off a little chilly. In fact, I took two laps on Devil's Elbow to warm up while the others went first into Collins Gulch before rejoining me for the second run. I marveled at how empty the place seemed to be, but I was dressed better for later in the day than for the start, and while once in Mineral I felt a good deal warmer, I still stuck to the groomer after finding skin-crusted snow off-piste and chunkiness on stuff groomed 48 hours earlier. I was also feeling the effects of the full day yesterday at Snowbasin, so when Bobby Danger wanted to ski Silver Fox I took one look at the chunky bumps and decided to ski around after sampling the stuff between the Chip's switchbacks -- it was somewhat stiff.
We headed back up Peruvian and through the tunnel back to Mineral. Back up MBE, from Hidden Peak we marveled at the cajones of the three who laid tracks on Germicide, to looker's right of Pipeline where one screw up would've resulted in an unsurvivable 2000-foot plunge across the cliffs directly below. :shock: After banging off a few turns they headed north along the ridgeline of West Twin and eventually drained into Whoopsie's from above.
Pushing off down Path to Paradise, which was a congested disaster this morning, the others tried Hyena Ridge as I headed out Path to Paradise to Toad Hill. They found good snow on top but crusty stuff lower down as I skied cut-up loose snow and concluded on the Powder Paradise groomer. On the next lap the others followed and we went all the way out to the pass between Bookends and Sunday Cliffs to look down and across into Mary Ellen Gulch, an area that Bobby Danger refers to as "FutureBird" due to Snowbird's future expansion plans.
While most of the others skied the main line down, I opted to work skier's right beneath the Sunday Cliffs themselves and found lightly tracked to untracked snow on the right turns, and sastrugi on the left turns. Weird.
We headed straight to Baldy Express and back into Alta for our usual Sunday lunch at the Rustler Lodge.
Control work on Baldy wrapped up in the a.m., and we figured that lunch would give Livin' The Dream the perfect amount of time to soften. While there Sam called, too -- he was up with his son Dean and I haven't had the pleasure of skiing with them all winter. They decided to join us, which would require us to ride up Collins and ski down to and ride up Sugarloaf, but by the time we got there Dean was the only one still waiting as Sam had taken a head start on the climb. Bobby Danger was curious about the snow conditions along the walk up the Snowbird side, so he went on ahead as well as the rest of us began the bootpack up Baldy.
Now, those who know realize that the climb is much easier from the Snowbird side -- longer, but easier. From Hidden Peak, accessing Baldy requires a hike up the long but steady Peruvian Gulch ridgeline. From Alta, however, it starts with a brutally steep bootpack before easing into a long, shallow grade the rest of the way to the summit. Vertical gained is nearly identical, but that steep initial climb from Sugarloaf Pass typically wipes you out.
For some reason, though, it didn't today. On top of that, this was the first time all season that I didn't show up for skiing with a backpack, either on me or in the truck, so I had to shoulder my skis. But today's climb went fairly well. We eventually all joined up on Baldy with Perla's on one side, and LTD on the other.
Most of us debated which to ski. The two offered radically different experiences, with Perla's covered in soft, chalky sluff and LTD draped in seamless corn. Add to that the fact that Perla's is one of only two Baldy Chutes skiable by mere mortals that I have yet to descend, and I was leaning that way. Bobby Danger, however, was determined to ski LTD and the rest of us eventually relented and headed south.
We finished our run in Mineral by dropping the narrow chute between the Chamonix Cliffs directly beneath the Baldy Express chair. This was thick snow that formed two-foot roller balls with each turn, but still provided a fun run. As The Other Bobby D commented, "Thank God for fat skis."
I rode back up Baldy Express with Sam, Dean and Marc_C while the others hopped on MBE for one more run out Hyena Ridge. Our group of four returned to Wildcat base via Tombstone 1 for more soft, sifted chalk before Marc_C and I called it a day at 3:30.
Apologies for the crappy photo quality, but as I wasn't skiing with a pack today I opted to try out a Panasonic point-and-shoot. The color balance was horrific, and even in "snow" white balance mode the pics had a nasty blue hue. I spent 30 minutes trying to balance the colors a bit better before publishing, with mixed results.
