Liz is doing the same Kristen Ulmer clinic as a year ago, and similarly we started the trip with a day at Brighton. This one was much smoother as last year we were futzing with masks in cold weather for the first time. This year the weather was nice and I've previously skied 10 days, half of them at Mammoth as opposed to 5 exclusively on groomers a year ago.
It was still a short day as Liz had an intro meeting at Alta at 3:45. We parked very close to Millicent lift, convenient to start there as it's in morning sun. As at Mammoth recent weeks have been dry but not overly warm so melt/freezing is not widespread. Some places you might say are somewhat firm early on and loosen up later. We mostly skied groomers on Millicent, and they are entertaining with lots of rolls and changes in pitch. Overview of Millicent ungroomed looker's left of the lift
The rock band across the middle rarely has wide openings and they are difficult to scout from above. I followed some people to the skier's right boundary line, where they all hesitated. I sideslipped the choke, which had two rock ledges to step over, one of them about a foot tall.
Our last run on Milly was closer to the lift with more room.
Even though there are numerous moguls it's still all winter snow in here.
We next rode Crest, which had a 5-10 minute line most of the day. We crossed to Great Western, which was closed for wind a year ago. View toward the top of Snake Creek and Crest:
View down Great Western toward Solitude:
Dropping off Elk Park, only Golden Needle was freshly groomed so we skied that first. It took two more explorations to find Desperado from above. For my last Great Western run I dropped in the inaptly named Endless Winter which faces slightly south of west. The upper 2/3 of the run was wide open chalky snow. The lower part narrowed and turned more south. Being on a deadline I followed the trail which became very crunchy with obstacles to slip around. I probably should have gone the other way into trees for better snow.
I crossed to Crest then skied to the car by 2PM. Total was 17,400 vertical.
It was still a short day as Liz had an intro meeting at Alta at 3:45. We parked very close to Millicent lift, convenient to start there as it's in morning sun. As at Mammoth recent weeks have been dry but not overly warm so melt/freezing is not widespread. Some places you might say are somewhat firm early on and loosen up later. We mostly skied groomers on Millicent, and they are entertaining with lots of rolls and changes in pitch. Overview of Millicent ungroomed looker's left of the lift
The rock band across the middle rarely has wide openings and they are difficult to scout from above. I followed some people to the skier's right boundary line, where they all hesitated. I sideslipped the choke, which had two rock ledges to step over, one of them about a foot tall.
Our last run on Milly was closer to the lift with more room.
Even though there are numerous moguls it's still all winter snow in here.
We next rode Crest, which had a 5-10 minute line most of the day. We crossed to Great Western, which was closed for wind a year ago. View toward the top of Snake Creek and Crest:
View down Great Western toward Solitude:
Dropping off Elk Park, only Golden Needle was freshly groomed so we skied that first. It took two more explorations to find Desperado from above. For my last Great Western run I dropped in the inaptly named Endless Winter which faces slightly south of west. The upper 2/3 of the run was wide open chalky snow. The lower part narrowed and turned more south. Being on a deadline I followed the trail which became very crunchy with obstacles to slip around. I probably should have gone the other way into trees for better snow.
I crossed to Crest then skied to the car by 2PM. Total was 17,400 vertical.