Day 68: Stick a fork in me.
I'm done. Lift served skiing ends tomorrow at Snowbird, and if I try to ski on Mother's Day I'm going to receive my nuggets back in a box. I'm not sure that my body will be up to it tomorrow, anyway, for we went from open to beyond closing time today -- 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. -- without any break, even for lunch. There was also ample hiking involved. My back is already killing me. But I've got lots and lots of pictures today.
I met up with AmyZ and Skidog at the Forklift for a 7:30 breakfast. Cover near the very bottom is getting rather patchy.
We boarded the Tram shortly after opening. To say that the early part of the day was uncrowded would be an understatement:
We were joined mid-morning by Bobby Danger and Telejon. Bobby was late because he had to drive rdwore to the airport for a morning flight to head back to Upstate NY for the summer (we missed you, rdwore!). We just kept lapping both MBE and Little Cloud repeatedly, searching for perfectly softening snow.
In many place it was smooth as butter.
In some locations, though, the unusually thin snowpack has led to sun cups earlier in the year than I've ever seen them before.
In other places the lack of snow is rather startling.
It felt good to ride Little Cloud this final weekend, for this summer it will be replaced by a high speed detachable quad.
By 12:30 it was time for our final run, which would turn out to be a 2.5-hour marathon adventure up Mount Baldy, down Main Chute, up to the top of Wildcat and down Comma Chute.
Here's something I tried for the first time this evening, a virtual reality 360-degree panorama from the top of Mount Baldy.
The forum will only display an image inline if it's no more than 1024px wide. I've therefore placed the full-resolution picture on its own page for those who wish to view it.
I tried making 2 versions of the VR image - the first is for those with the Quicktime browser plugin - just use your mouse to click and drag to pan and the SHIFT and CTRL keys to zoom out/in while your mouse is over the image:
[quicktime]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/images/Baldy_panorama_sm.MOV[/quicktime]
The second is a lower-res Flash version for those without Quicktime (move your mouse over the image to speed up/slow down/change direction of the panning motion):
[flash_pano]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/files/baldy_panorama.swf[/flash_pano]
Edit: I've updated the panoramas to better align the field of view and to better hide the seam.
After hanging out at the summit for a bit it was time to drop in.
There's still a boatload of snow in Alta's Collins Gulch, although the entire High Traverse has melted out and even a good chunk of the Saddle Traverse on West Rustler.
I took the Turbo Traverse to the top of Wildcat while the others skied Harold's and then booted up the Wildcat Road.
A short bootpack later we were hanging out at the ammo building on the Wildcat Ridge taking in the mid-afternoon view.
Getting to Comma Chute proper was a little tricky, as the snow above the chute itself has already largely melted out. There was some traversing across mud and rock involved, but once in the chute itself cover -- and surface conditions -- were as perfect as they could get.
We made it back to the cars right at 3 p.m. after a walk down a portion of Westward Ho. All in all, a fine way to end what was in many ways a disappointing season. There's always next year!
I'm done. Lift served skiing ends tomorrow at Snowbird, and if I try to ski on Mother's Day I'm going to receive my nuggets back in a box. I'm not sure that my body will be up to it tomorrow, anyway, for we went from open to beyond closing time today -- 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. -- without any break, even for lunch. There was also ample hiking involved. My back is already killing me. But I've got lots and lots of pictures today.
I met up with AmyZ and Skidog at the Forklift for a 7:30 breakfast. Cover near the very bottom is getting rather patchy.
We boarded the Tram shortly after opening. To say that the early part of the day was uncrowded would be an understatement:
We were joined mid-morning by Bobby Danger and Telejon. Bobby was late because he had to drive rdwore to the airport for a morning flight to head back to Upstate NY for the summer (we missed you, rdwore!). We just kept lapping both MBE and Little Cloud repeatedly, searching for perfectly softening snow.
In many place it was smooth as butter.
In some locations, though, the unusually thin snowpack has led to sun cups earlier in the year than I've ever seen them before.
In other places the lack of snow is rather startling.
It felt good to ride Little Cloud this final weekend, for this summer it will be replaced by a high speed detachable quad.
By 12:30 it was time for our final run, which would turn out to be a 2.5-hour marathon adventure up Mount Baldy, down Main Chute, up to the top of Wildcat and down Comma Chute.
Here's something I tried for the first time this evening, a virtual reality 360-degree panorama from the top of Mount Baldy.
The forum will only display an image inline if it's no more than 1024px wide. I've therefore placed the full-resolution picture on its own page for those who wish to view it.
I tried making 2 versions of the VR image - the first is for those with the Quicktime browser plugin - just use your mouse to click and drag to pan and the SHIFT and CTRL keys to zoom out/in while your mouse is over the image:
[quicktime]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/images/Baldy_panorama_sm.MOV[/quicktime]
The second is a lower-res Flash version for those without Quicktime (move your mouse over the image to speed up/slow down/change direction of the panning motion):
[flash_pano]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/files/baldy_panorama.swf[/flash_pano]
Edit: I've updated the panoramas to better align the field of view and to better hide the seam.
After hanging out at the summit for a bit it was time to drop in.
There's still a boatload of snow in Alta's Collins Gulch, although the entire High Traverse has melted out and even a good chunk of the Saddle Traverse on West Rustler.
I took the Turbo Traverse to the top of Wildcat while the others skied Harold's and then booted up the Wildcat Road.
A short bootpack later we were hanging out at the ammo building on the Wildcat Ridge taking in the mid-afternoon view.
Getting to Comma Chute proper was a little tricky, as the snow above the chute itself has already largely melted out. There was some traversing across mud and rock involved, but once in the chute itself cover -- and surface conditions -- were as perfect as they could get.
We made it back to the cars right at 3 p.m. after a walk down a portion of Westward Ho. All in all, a fine way to end what was in many ways a disappointing season. There's always next year!
