Day 63: One inch of new snow never felt this good
I met up with Bob Dangerous on the Bypass Road at 10. Thunderstorms moved through overnight, dropping rain on the house and a reported inch of new snow in the Wasatch. I'd expected sludge on crust. As is always the case with these things, I was perfectly happy to have been proven wrong.
We boarded Peruvian and headed up. What I hadn't realized is that below around 9,000 feet the storm started as rain, softening up the base perfectly. An inch of heavy wet snow then fell on top of that rendering beautifully carveable cream cheese. Above the freeze line, it seemed that about three inches fell.
The new Movement Goliaths handled this stuff with aplomb. I was able to carve big, fast arcs with abandon. What surprised me is that I could still maneuver them comfortably through reasonably tight trees, too. About the only thing they're positively miserable in is bumps, but that shouldn't surprise anyone.
We headed out West Baldy for our first run, and absolutely loved the snow. Back on piste, we headed down Chip's and out the High Blackjack Gate to ski a positively creamy and dreamy Upper Blackjack, for we were now below the freeze line. Blackjack proper was an inch of untouched dense snow atop a soft groomed base, perfect for arcing. We finished up on Whodunit.
We rode back up Peruvian, intending to go up Baldy Ridge. While heading up the Baldy Ridge hike, though, we made an unplanned foray into Mineral Basin upon finding the Chamonix Chutes untracked. Really, there was no one there at all yesterday. By the time we dropped Chamonix and rode back up MBE to try the Baldy Ridge hike again, there were still only four sets of tracks heading out there!
Once we got to Eddie's Snowfield, there were only two tracks down the far left side, leaving the rest for us as we whooped and hollered the whole way down. We traversed right into Palm Springs for more of the same before once again finishing on Whodunit.
On our last ride up MBE we'd noted that the whole saddle area between the Sunday Cliffs and the Bookends had only one track, so we made plans to head there, going through the tunnel and scoring more untracked directly below the tunnel in the vicinity of Shortcut Gully and Phone 10. The last pitch required that we ski Garske's Face, where the Goliaths made their shortcomings in bumps known...loudly.
By the time we got there, the Sunday Cliffs were only lightly tracked, but still skied exceedingly well. Before pushing off we paused on the ridgeline to peer over into Mary Ellen Gulch, Snowbird's next planned expansion area. It's already permitted, and the expansion will require lowering the base terminal of the MBE by a considerable amount, so Mineral Basin will grow as well. Mary Ellen Gulch looks to have some prime ski terrain!
We had to work our way left halfway down our run to reach Baldy Express, as Bob was scheduled to perhaps meet his friend Jeff at Watson Shelter at 1 pm. We were headed for Alta.
Once through the Sugar Shack checkpoint we decided to take one lap before lunch on Supreme, as yesterday was that lift's last day of operation this winter. It had to be a quick cruiser, so we headed down Rock 'n Roll all the way to Sugarloaf, followed by another quick cruiser on Mambo to Main Street to Betwixt.
We didn't bump into Jeff until after lunch, but by that point my legs even felt rubbery ascending the stairs from the Watson Shelter restrooms. Shelter Hill still lacked even a single track, but Bob and I were done. We skied down, boarded Wildcat, and took the short hike to the Keyhole to return to Snowbird. Tons of untracked snow still lingered in the Keyhole, and we reached our trucks at 2 pm via Lightening Tree Hill.
A great Easter Sunday got only better as 10 of us returned to Snowbird for a three-hour dinner in The Aerie at the Cliff Lodge. Much wine flowed, and conversation included Liftlines users Marc_C and tirolerpeter, who's now moved in here.
Life is good.
I met up with Bob Dangerous on the Bypass Road at 10. Thunderstorms moved through overnight, dropping rain on the house and a reported inch of new snow in the Wasatch. I'd expected sludge on crust. As is always the case with these things, I was perfectly happy to have been proven wrong.
We boarded Peruvian and headed up. What I hadn't realized is that below around 9,000 feet the storm started as rain, softening up the base perfectly. An inch of heavy wet snow then fell on top of that rendering beautifully carveable cream cheese. Above the freeze line, it seemed that about three inches fell.
The new Movement Goliaths handled this stuff with aplomb. I was able to carve big, fast arcs with abandon. What surprised me is that I could still maneuver them comfortably through reasonably tight trees, too. About the only thing they're positively miserable in is bumps, but that shouldn't surprise anyone.
We headed out West Baldy for our first run, and absolutely loved the snow. Back on piste, we headed down Chip's and out the High Blackjack Gate to ski a positively creamy and dreamy Upper Blackjack, for we were now below the freeze line. Blackjack proper was an inch of untouched dense snow atop a soft groomed base, perfect for arcing. We finished up on Whodunit.
We rode back up Peruvian, intending to go up Baldy Ridge. While heading up the Baldy Ridge hike, though, we made an unplanned foray into Mineral Basin upon finding the Chamonix Chutes untracked. Really, there was no one there at all yesterday. By the time we dropped Chamonix and rode back up MBE to try the Baldy Ridge hike again, there were still only four sets of tracks heading out there!
Once we got to Eddie's Snowfield, there were only two tracks down the far left side, leaving the rest for us as we whooped and hollered the whole way down. We traversed right into Palm Springs for more of the same before once again finishing on Whodunit.
On our last ride up MBE we'd noted that the whole saddle area between the Sunday Cliffs and the Bookends had only one track, so we made plans to head there, going through the tunnel and scoring more untracked directly below the tunnel in the vicinity of Shortcut Gully and Phone 10. The last pitch required that we ski Garske's Face, where the Goliaths made their shortcomings in bumps known...loudly.
By the time we got there, the Sunday Cliffs were only lightly tracked, but still skied exceedingly well. Before pushing off we paused on the ridgeline to peer over into Mary Ellen Gulch, Snowbird's next planned expansion area. It's already permitted, and the expansion will require lowering the base terminal of the MBE by a considerable amount, so Mineral Basin will grow as well. Mary Ellen Gulch looks to have some prime ski terrain!
We had to work our way left halfway down our run to reach Baldy Express, as Bob was scheduled to perhaps meet his friend Jeff at Watson Shelter at 1 pm. We were headed for Alta.
Once through the Sugar Shack checkpoint we decided to take one lap before lunch on Supreme, as yesterday was that lift's last day of operation this winter. It had to be a quick cruiser, so we headed down Rock 'n Roll all the way to Sugarloaf, followed by another quick cruiser on Mambo to Main Street to Betwixt.
We didn't bump into Jeff until after lunch, but by that point my legs even felt rubbery ascending the stairs from the Watson Shelter restrooms. Shelter Hill still lacked even a single track, but Bob and I were done. We skied down, boarded Wildcat, and took the short hike to the Keyhole to return to Snowbird. Tons of untracked snow still lingered in the Keyhole, and we reached our trucks at 2 pm via Lightening Tree Hill.
A great Easter Sunday got only better as 10 of us returned to Snowbird for a three-hour dinner in The Aerie at the Cliff Lodge. Much wine flowed, and conversation included Liftlines users Marc_C and tirolerpeter, who's now moved in here.
Life is good.
Attachments
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06 snowbird sunday cliffs saddle 070408.jpg -
05 snowbird mary ellen gulch 070408.jpg -
04 snowbird mary ellen gulch 070408.jpg -
03 snowbird sunday cliffs 070408.jpg -
02 snowbird eddies snowfield bob dangerous 070408.jpg -
01 snowbird eddies snowfield bob dangerous 070408.jpg -
00 snowbird eddies snowfield bob dangerous 070408.jpg