Day 46: A tale of two cities.
As I posted yesterday, on Saturday I bought new ski boots for Mrs. Admin and she was anxious to try them out today. She wasn't, however, anxious to buy a lift ticket, and after dropping nearly $700 at Level 9 Sports I wasn't anxious to buy her one, either. But I had one more "Friends and Family" ticket to Park City Mountain Resort and she wanted to use it today. After the high temperature in Salt Lake City hit a record-tying 61 degrees yesterday I pretty much knew what we'd encounter in Park City, but far be it from me to stand in Mrs. Admin's way when she actually wants to ski. So I phoned Bobby Danger this morning to let him know to not expect me for breakfast at Goldminer's Daughter today. And after 4 hours of sleep following last night's Pixies concert at Saltair I wasn't exactly brimming with energy this morning, so cruising groomers with the Mrs. today certainly wasn't the worst idea in the world.
We loaded Crescent at PCMR shortly before 10 a.m. in warm and windy conditions. The snow down low was saturated, so I knew to stay as high as possible. We transferred to Silverlode just to access McConkeys. And as expected, the snow was considerably drier up there, although it was already wetting near the bottom of even that lift.
I was impressed by the difference better boots made in Mrs. Admin's skiing -- she was far more centered and had substantially more control, leaving her with far better form. She definitely noticed the difference, too, so it was money well spent. The primary groomers, however, were busy with unpredictable holiday visitor traffic. What's your vector, Victor? I wished that I could predict it, but it was nearly impossible to do at times. There were occasions when I felt truly uncomfortable and concerned for my own well-being.
Waves of graupel moved in late morning. At lunch time we skied down Quittin' Time to Main Street for a couple of slices at Davanza's, and at the downtown elevation the snow was barely of the frozen variety. It picked up in intensity as we ate, and as we rode back to the ski area on the Town Lift at around 1:15 we heard a couple of sharp claps of thunder. About three quarters of the way up I watched a bright red "Last Chair" sign download on the line.
Sure enough, by the time we got to the top they had roped off access to Bonanza so we were forced down the hill -- although they inexplicably continued loading passengers on Crescent and PayDay. Nevertheless, skiing through the thick, gloppy and grippy springlike snow we determined that we'd had enough, and we headed to the truck just before 2 p.m. for the ride home.
Northbound on UT-248, though, my mind started wandering on what might be going on in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I made some phone calls and reached Skidog at home. He had been at Alta before the lightning shut their lifts down at 1 p.m. and reported intense graupel snowfall arriving with the front. Mrs. Admin suggested that we drive up LCC for the last couple of hours of the day, and who was I to argue?
She thought about buying a $10 ticket to ski Sunnyside for the rest of the day, but with the worsening weather with each foot of elevation gain she decided against it. The road was slick by Snowbird Entry 4, and at Hellgate Superior it got downright nasty with a thick layer of snow covering ice on the asphalt surface. Winds steadily increased. My mood was further enhanced by the steady stream of cars heading down canyon.
I loaded Collins for five quick laps, 10,000 vertical feet in 75 minutes. And holy cow was it good! The front left three quick inches of graupel and sustained winds of 25 mph with gusts of 50 were smoothing things out on every run, most of which I had to myself. This was rock star skiing. Eagle's Nest was divine and relatively untracked. So was Hourglass to Rustler IV. Christmas Tree was completely untracked, so after reaching it via Liftline and the Saddle Traverse I had to do it again from the High T via Santa Claus. Everyone with whom I rode the lift was having a wonderful time.
As I skied up to the truck right at 4:20 Bobby Danger was there chatting up Mrs. Admin after returning from Snowbird, reporting similar results. Yeah...it was that good! Sure, there's often a clear difference in weather between the ski resorts of the Wasatch Back and those of the Front, but today's difference was a stark contrast in conditions.
As I posted yesterday, on Saturday I bought new ski boots for Mrs. Admin and she was anxious to try them out today. She wasn't, however, anxious to buy a lift ticket, and after dropping nearly $700 at Level 9 Sports I wasn't anxious to buy her one, either. But I had one more "Friends and Family" ticket to Park City Mountain Resort and she wanted to use it today. After the high temperature in Salt Lake City hit a record-tying 61 degrees yesterday I pretty much knew what we'd encounter in Park City, but far be it from me to stand in Mrs. Admin's way when she actually wants to ski. So I phoned Bobby Danger this morning to let him know to not expect me for breakfast at Goldminer's Daughter today. And after 4 hours of sleep following last night's Pixies concert at Saltair I wasn't exactly brimming with energy this morning, so cruising groomers with the Mrs. today certainly wasn't the worst idea in the world.
We loaded Crescent at PCMR shortly before 10 a.m. in warm and windy conditions. The snow down low was saturated, so I knew to stay as high as possible. We transferred to Silverlode just to access McConkeys. And as expected, the snow was considerably drier up there, although it was already wetting near the bottom of even that lift.
I was impressed by the difference better boots made in Mrs. Admin's skiing -- she was far more centered and had substantially more control, leaving her with far better form. She definitely noticed the difference, too, so it was money well spent. The primary groomers, however, were busy with unpredictable holiday visitor traffic. What's your vector, Victor? I wished that I could predict it, but it was nearly impossible to do at times. There were occasions when I felt truly uncomfortable and concerned for my own well-being.
Waves of graupel moved in late morning. At lunch time we skied down Quittin' Time to Main Street for a couple of slices at Davanza's, and at the downtown elevation the snow was barely of the frozen variety. It picked up in intensity as we ate, and as we rode back to the ski area on the Town Lift at around 1:15 we heard a couple of sharp claps of thunder. About three quarters of the way up I watched a bright red "Last Chair" sign download on the line.
Sure enough, by the time we got to the top they had roped off access to Bonanza so we were forced down the hill -- although they inexplicably continued loading passengers on Crescent and PayDay. Nevertheless, skiing through the thick, gloppy and grippy springlike snow we determined that we'd had enough, and we headed to the truck just before 2 p.m. for the ride home.
Northbound on UT-248, though, my mind started wandering on what might be going on in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I made some phone calls and reached Skidog at home. He had been at Alta before the lightning shut their lifts down at 1 p.m. and reported intense graupel snowfall arriving with the front. Mrs. Admin suggested that we drive up LCC for the last couple of hours of the day, and who was I to argue?
She thought about buying a $10 ticket to ski Sunnyside for the rest of the day, but with the worsening weather with each foot of elevation gain she decided against it. The road was slick by Snowbird Entry 4, and at Hellgate Superior it got downright nasty with a thick layer of snow covering ice on the asphalt surface. Winds steadily increased. My mood was further enhanced by the steady stream of cars heading down canyon.
I loaded Collins for five quick laps, 10,000 vertical feet in 75 minutes. And holy cow was it good! The front left three quick inches of graupel and sustained winds of 25 mph with gusts of 50 were smoothing things out on every run, most of which I had to myself. This was rock star skiing. Eagle's Nest was divine and relatively untracked. So was Hourglass to Rustler IV. Christmas Tree was completely untracked, so after reaching it via Liftline and the Saddle Traverse I had to do it again from the High T via Santa Claus. Everyone with whom I rode the lift was having a wonderful time.
As I skied up to the truck right at 4:20 Bobby Danger was there chatting up Mrs. Admin after returning from Snowbird, reporting similar results. Yeah...it was that good! Sure, there's often a clear difference in weather between the ski resorts of the Wasatch Back and those of the Front, but today's difference was a stark contrast in conditions.
