Day 58: May powder, baby! \
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Holy cow! Snowbird is up to 43 inches from this system, with the next impulse due to arrive tonight. Everyone seems to have gotten their fill yesterday for today was never that crowded, and things tracked out incredibly slowly, probably due to the limited visibility in many places. The only line was for the Tram, and that was a full maze around the building. They reopened Peruvian like they did yesterday to alleviate the crowds (it was already done for the season a couple of weeks ago) and allowed folks to walk through the tunnel into Mineral Basin. This was the Tram alternative that we used all day and skied right onto Peruvian, MBE and Little Cloud all day.
Bobby Danger carried my camera all day, so all of these photos are his work. I won't give you a run-by-run account, for everything is a white blur anyway. We started out by catching second chair up Peruvian, and skied about six or eight runs in what was at times very tough visibility before an early lunch at the Forklift.
After our early lunch it was time to head to "Snowbird East," so we went back up Peruvian Express, through the tunnel, down Mineral Basin, up MBE and out the hike to High Baldy Traverse, at the end of which is now a backcountry gate where the Armpit gate normally stands.
Armpit itself was somewhat chewed, but below that tracks scattered. We took the turbo traverse to the top of the Wildcat lift, then worked our way down through Wildcat.
We ended up in our favorite secret spot, which had one -- count 'em, one -- track in it by 1:30 p.m.
I was ready to end the day on a high note, but was talked into a Gad Valley run as Bobby and Skidog had spotted a vehicle at the Creekside lot (Gadzoom is closed for the season, so there's nothing in-bounds available below the Bass Highway). Back up Peruvian Express and through the tunnel into Mineral again.
We headed out the Mid-Cirque Traverse to Nirvana. By now we were getting some breaks of sun.
Even though we only got about 15 minutes of sun, it was already making the snow markedly heavier. We opted to traverse hard left below the choke point in Nirvana to exit at the Mid-Gad Restaurant and head for the Get Serious Chutes.
The entrance was totally clean, and untracked on the apron.
We rode back to our vehicles in the back of Bobby's truck at around 2:45 p.m. and called it a day. I wanted to keep some gas in the tank for tomorrow.
We had three cameras running. I should have more photos to add tonight once I get my hands on Skidog's and The Other Bobby D's.
Tomorrow should be perfect. With the sun marginally setting up today's snow surface, it'll be topped by another 10-16 inches tonight according to the forecast. Another May powder day!
/ Holy cow! Snowbird is up to 43 inches from this system, with the next impulse due to arrive tonight. Everyone seems to have gotten their fill yesterday for today was never that crowded, and things tracked out incredibly slowly, probably due to the limited visibility in many places. The only line was for the Tram, and that was a full maze around the building. They reopened Peruvian like they did yesterday to alleviate the crowds (it was already done for the season a couple of weeks ago) and allowed folks to walk through the tunnel into Mineral Basin. This was the Tram alternative that we used all day and skied right onto Peruvian, MBE and Little Cloud all day.
Bobby Danger carried my camera all day, so all of these photos are his work. I won't give you a run-by-run account, for everything is a white blur anyway. We started out by catching second chair up Peruvian, and skied about six or eight runs in what was at times very tough visibility before an early lunch at the Forklift.
After our early lunch it was time to head to "Snowbird East," so we went back up Peruvian Express, through the tunnel, down Mineral Basin, up MBE and out the hike to High Baldy Traverse, at the end of which is now a backcountry gate where the Armpit gate normally stands.
Armpit itself was somewhat chewed, but below that tracks scattered. We took the turbo traverse to the top of the Wildcat lift, then worked our way down through Wildcat.
We ended up in our favorite secret spot, which had one -- count 'em, one -- track in it by 1:30 p.m.
I was ready to end the day on a high note, but was talked into a Gad Valley run as Bobby and Skidog had spotted a vehicle at the Creekside lot (Gadzoom is closed for the season, so there's nothing in-bounds available below the Bass Highway). Back up Peruvian Express and through the tunnel into Mineral again.
We headed out the Mid-Cirque Traverse to Nirvana. By now we were getting some breaks of sun.
Even though we only got about 15 minutes of sun, it was already making the snow markedly heavier. We opted to traverse hard left below the choke point in Nirvana to exit at the Mid-Gad Restaurant and head for the Get Serious Chutes.
The entrance was totally clean, and untracked on the apron.
We rode back to our vehicles in the back of Bobby's truck at around 2:45 p.m. and called it a day. I wanted to keep some gas in the tank for tomorrow.
We had three cameras running. I should have more photos to add tonight once I get my hands on Skidog's and The Other Bobby D's.
Tomorrow should be perfect. With the sun marginally setting up today's snow surface, it'll be topped by another 10-16 inches tonight according to the forecast. Another May powder day!
