Day 61: Untracked corn perfection
Finally, a corn cycle! Finally, too, that I got out skiing after a two-week hiatus. Met up with Bobby Danger and Tele Jon shortly after 9 a.m. on the Tram Plaza, following a delay driving up canyon as a tow truck winched a car back up onto the road. We were in the bucket by 9:20 with 25 or 30 other people.
There's still an absolute boatload of snow up there, with only a couple of the most insignificant bare spots at the very bottom of Snowbird where folks don't normally ski anyway. Everything else is covered wall to wall. I hadn't skied Saturday, but the other two figured that it was a few degrees warmer than a day earlier, and we therefore opted to head straight to Alta for some untracked corn. Out the Peruvian Ridge, across Chamonix Chutes and a short bootpack to Sugarloaf Pass later, we were back in Alta.
We took the EBT over to the top of Collins and hiked the High Notch route, dropping through absolutely divine, smooth corn down Yellow Trail. We crossed onto Backside, threading our runs between fingers of wet avalanche debris before crossing to the top of Greeley Hill. Taking a break, who else came around the corner at our precise elevation than Salida? We were now a party of four.
Greeley Hill, too, was absolutely in its prime, and we looped turns through the corn before working our way back across the very bottom of North Rustler, Eagle's Nest and High Rustler to return to the base of Collins, continuing our traverse back into Snowbird. One hour 40 minutes for a lap.
After some nourishment on the Tram Plaza we boarded again and headed out across the Knucklehead to get to the top of a closed Gad 2 lift. The first pitch of Gadzooks was still a little firm, but thereafter the surface blended into the same smooth corn that we'd skied at Alta. We headed below Gad 2 on Lower Bassackwards, using a variation on Miner's Road to get back to the open portion of the ski area.
I got very little sleep on Friday night and my body's still recovering, so I was pretty beat by the time we all settled in for lunch on the Plaza, joined by Marc_C and Amy. While the others headed into Mineral Basin, I therefore headed down Chip's back to my truck on the Bypass Road to call it a day at 1:30 -- 4 hours, 3 runs.
Today's video features skiing from Admin, Bobby "Corn Flake" Danger, "Lemming" Tele Jon and Salida:
[skitube2]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/modules/crpVideo/pnmedia/videos/1242003639_2009-05-10_AltaBird.flv[/skitube2]
Finally, a corn cycle! Finally, too, that I got out skiing after a two-week hiatus. Met up with Bobby Danger and Tele Jon shortly after 9 a.m. on the Tram Plaza, following a delay driving up canyon as a tow truck winched a car back up onto the road. We were in the bucket by 9:20 with 25 or 30 other people.
There's still an absolute boatload of snow up there, with only a couple of the most insignificant bare spots at the very bottom of Snowbird where folks don't normally ski anyway. Everything else is covered wall to wall. I hadn't skied Saturday, but the other two figured that it was a few degrees warmer than a day earlier, and we therefore opted to head straight to Alta for some untracked corn. Out the Peruvian Ridge, across Chamonix Chutes and a short bootpack to Sugarloaf Pass later, we were back in Alta.
We took the EBT over to the top of Collins and hiked the High Notch route, dropping through absolutely divine, smooth corn down Yellow Trail. We crossed onto Backside, threading our runs between fingers of wet avalanche debris before crossing to the top of Greeley Hill. Taking a break, who else came around the corner at our precise elevation than Salida? We were now a party of four.
Greeley Hill, too, was absolutely in its prime, and we looped turns through the corn before working our way back across the very bottom of North Rustler, Eagle's Nest and High Rustler to return to the base of Collins, continuing our traverse back into Snowbird. One hour 40 minutes for a lap.
After some nourishment on the Tram Plaza we boarded again and headed out across the Knucklehead to get to the top of a closed Gad 2 lift. The first pitch of Gadzooks was still a little firm, but thereafter the surface blended into the same smooth corn that we'd skied at Alta. We headed below Gad 2 on Lower Bassackwards, using a variation on Miner's Road to get back to the open portion of the ski area.
I got very little sleep on Friday night and my body's still recovering, so I was pretty beat by the time we all settled in for lunch on the Plaza, joined by Marc_C and Amy. While the others headed into Mineral Basin, I therefore headed down Chip's back to my truck on the Bypass Road to call it a day at 1:30 -- 4 hours, 3 runs.
Today's video features skiing from Admin, Bobby "Corn Flake" Danger, "Lemming" Tele Jon and Salida:
[skitube2]http://www.firsttracksonline.com/modules/crpVideo/pnmedia/videos/1242003639_2009-05-10_AltaBird.flv[/skitube2]
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