Day 41: Crocker's group.
Although we started and ended the day at Alta, the rest of yesterday was spent at Snowbird for my first and likely last time skiing that resort this season, other than the occasional foray into Snowbird terrain from the Alta ropeline. Crocker's group is in town and I wanted to spend some time skiing with them this season, and most of them are on Snowbird-only tickets.
Although it was just as sunny as it had been at Solitude on Saturday, temperatures were markedly colder on Sunday. That meant that things never really softened up, even on west-facing aspects like Alta's West Rustler late in the afternoon as we had mistakenly expected them to do. We therefore spent most of our time on north-facing terrain, including Great Scott (twice), Rasta Chutes and High Boy. With the sun an hour earlier in the sky following the changeover to Daylight Savings Time, I'm guessing that West Rustler may have finally hit its prime around 5 or 5:30, but it was still quite crunchy at 4:00.
We ended the day with a beer in the Wildcat parking lot at 4:30 before venturing down to the Iron Blosam for the usual pool/hot tub/dinner. Tony's timeshare week is well attended this year, with about 35 people crammed into Al's unit for dinner and to celebrate Al's 65th birthday.
After birthday cake washed down with a single malt, I headed down canyon to home.
With the day job kicking my butt this winter, I'm now realizing that my ski day count will be at an all-time low since moving to Utah once Alta closes in late April. I'll spend some days touring thereafter, but I'll surely be lucky to hit 60 days this season.
Although we started and ended the day at Alta, the rest of yesterday was spent at Snowbird for my first and likely last time skiing that resort this season, other than the occasional foray into Snowbird terrain from the Alta ropeline. Crocker's group is in town and I wanted to spend some time skiing with them this season, and most of them are on Snowbird-only tickets.
Although it was just as sunny as it had been at Solitude on Saturday, temperatures were markedly colder on Sunday. That meant that things never really softened up, even on west-facing aspects like Alta's West Rustler late in the afternoon as we had mistakenly expected them to do. We therefore spent most of our time on north-facing terrain, including Great Scott (twice), Rasta Chutes and High Boy. With the sun an hour earlier in the sky following the changeover to Daylight Savings Time, I'm guessing that West Rustler may have finally hit its prime around 5 or 5:30, but it was still quite crunchy at 4:00.
We ended the day with a beer in the Wildcat parking lot at 4:30 before venturing down to the Iron Blosam for the usual pool/hot tub/dinner. Tony's timeshare week is well attended this year, with about 35 people crammed into Al's unit for dinner and to celebrate Al's 65th birthday.
After birthday cake washed down with a single malt, I headed down canyon to home.
With the day job kicking my butt this winter, I'm now realizing that my ski day count will be at an all-time low since moving to Utah once Alta closes in late April. I'll spend some days touring thereafter, but I'll surely be lucky to hit 60 days this season.
