Just got back from the AltaBird trip. Sorry no pics since my son absconded with the digital camera for his HS photography class, :-({|= , but here's a trip report.
Spent Thursday and Friday at The Bird in Spring conditions. Hit Mineral Basin in the morning, as this seemed to be the first part of the mountain to soften up. High speed turns down the West (East facing) side of Juniors first thing, then good corn in the Bookends and in the chutes under the Mineral Basin Express chair by late-morning. The afternoons were spent exploring the high traverse beyond the Road to Provo. We found a nice line just past the third cliff band that required a straight-line into an untouched, chalky chute that was skiing quite well. I think it is in an area called Lumpjaw Land. We also skied most of the chutes along the East Cirque traverse (from Sliver Fox to Shot 14). In general, despite the warm temps and lack of powder, we had a great time exploring the South-, East- and North-facing terrain in beautiful spring conditions. Most of the West-to-Northwest facing terrain (Baldy, Gad Chutes, Regulator Johnson, etc. was to be avoided). Many of the chute entrances were quite rocky and The Bird needed a freshing up of snow.
On Saturday we ventured over to Alta with a similar strategy. High speed groomers off the Sugarloaf chair first thing in the morning. Early lunch at the Watson Shelter. Afternoon corn off the Supreme lift (the Spiney Chutes were skiing very well) and finished off the day with a couple of laps of High Rustler, which also was in good condition, although the high entrance was a bit tricky (rocky). The least experienced skier in our party went for a high-speed thrill ride (sans skiis and poles and mainly head-first) down High Rustler from near the top almost to the bottom. I was 75% of the way down the run, when I stopped to see where the rest of the party was and I saw him sliding head-first over the bumps...eyes wide as saucers. I yelled at him to flip over and he eventually came to a stop. I explained some self-arrest techniques that I probably should have shared with him earlier. We had a good laugh over that incident over A few beer at the end of the day. =D> My only disappointment about the day at Alta was that the Baldy Chutes were closed. I had been looking forward to skiing them, especially since they were open on Friday.
On Sunday the temps dropped and everything that had frozen overnight stayed frozen. Bulletproof was the operating word of the day. We decided to stay at Snowbird. The West side of Mineral Basin was passable and we did a few runs there. We spent most of the afternoon lapping Pipeline Bowl off the Little Cloud lift. It was ok, but not great. There was actually some nice wind-blown snow that provided some decent turns. The snow started falling at around 2:30 pm. We did a couple more Little Cloud laps and finished with a couple of runs under the Peruvian chair. By the closing bell, about 2 inches had fallen and things were already starting to improve. The next day (our last day) was going to be awesome.
By Monday morning, over a foot of new snow had fallen and it was still coming down hard. We had an afternoon flight to catch and planned to ski until 1 pm. We did not intend to spend our limited time standing in line. The Peruvian Chair was closed at 9 am and the Tram had a long line, so we made our way over to Gad II and skied enjoyed face shots and over-the-head shots on STH, Broomstick, A,B,C chutes, etc. When Gad II was tracked out we headed over to Gadzoom, traversed lookers left at the top of the lift and hit the bottom half of the chutes off the West Cirque. That area had hardly been skied at all and untracked lines were everywhere. At Noon, we headed over to Peruvian and finished our trip with a couple of laps of Fields of Glory/Blackjack. Man, was it ever hard to pry ourselves off the mountain to catch our flight, but we somehow managed to do it.
The skiing this week should be unbelievable.
All-in-all, except for Sunday's bullet-proof conditions, we had an amazing week.
