As predicted it was the warmest day of the week. The lower mountain was widely softened Thursday so no surprise it was bulletproof early Friday morning. We heard that people descended Chip’s Face one at a time because it was nearly impossible to stop. So Liz and I took our time and got out around 11:30AM. We took the tram, skied Powder Paradise to the Baldy chair to test whether south facing had softened unlike Monday. It had, so when we met Liz’ friends Ike and Lilly we took two more Mineral laps, starting with Lone Star to Lower Chamonix Chute under the lift. Ike on the way there:
Liz in the bumps:
We skied Mark Malu down to Little Cloud. FYI the Rastas are closed for a college freeride competition all day Friday/Saturday, so it’s fortunate that it was warm enough to finally soften west facing aspects in the late afternoon. Liz had to go into mid-Gad for a phone call so Lilly went with her and I took Ike to Great Scott. Here’s the mud walkover, fortunately not much longer than when I was there with admin & company last Sunday.
And here’s the initial traverse over Jaws.
Ike skiing Great Scott
We cruised down to Gadzoom, where it was quite warm. How warm was it?
Ike went to Gad 2 for a short lunch, but with my late start I took some Little Cloud laps. Regulator had finally softened and skied quite well. Second lap there I diverted to lower Puckerbrush. It had a nice cream cheese surface but the subsurface was irregular so not a smooth ride. Soon Liz, Ike and Lilly joined me at Little Cloud and we went back to Regulator. Liz charged it in the forgiving spring snow, but Lilly was exhausted and took a long time getting down, so she and Ike called it a day. Liz and I went back up to Little Cloud Bowl.
Liz than skied to the Plaza for what we hope was the final boot adjustment by Steve at Christy Sports. I headed out the Cirque Traverse. The younger Iron Blosam contingent has been going to upper Mach Schnell with upwards of 20 people the past 2 years. With the standard route being particularly ugly this year, Eddie and Mark Meisner got out there by traversing the west side of the ridge past Lone Pine with just 4 other people. I decided to go just partway out there and find something interesting to ski down. Very few people had been there, so most of the top surface was untouched cream cheese. Due to the low tide conditions I tried to ski in/near the few tracks I saw to avoid being cliffed out. I squeezed through a few cruxes in South Chute like this one.
I had to step over a few small rocks here and there but overall South Chute skied fairly well for my last run.
Total Friday was 19,900. I got down just before 4PM, but decided another run was not necessary with one more day skiing at Alta with admin & company.
Liz in the bumps:
We skied Mark Malu down to Little Cloud. FYI the Rastas are closed for a college freeride competition all day Friday/Saturday, so it’s fortunate that it was warm enough to finally soften west facing aspects in the late afternoon. Liz had to go into mid-Gad for a phone call so Lilly went with her and I took Ike to Great Scott. Here’s the mud walkover, fortunately not much longer than when I was there with admin & company last Sunday.
And here’s the initial traverse over Jaws.
Ike skiing Great Scott
We cruised down to Gadzoom, where it was quite warm. How warm was it?
Ike went to Gad 2 for a short lunch, but with my late start I took some Little Cloud laps. Regulator had finally softened and skied quite well. Second lap there I diverted to lower Puckerbrush. It had a nice cream cheese surface but the subsurface was irregular so not a smooth ride. Soon Liz, Ike and Lilly joined me at Little Cloud and we went back to Regulator. Liz charged it in the forgiving spring snow, but Lilly was exhausted and took a long time getting down, so she and Ike called it a day. Liz and I went back up to Little Cloud Bowl.
Liz than skied to the Plaza for what we hope was the final boot adjustment by Steve at Christy Sports. I headed out the Cirque Traverse. The younger Iron Blosam contingent has been going to upper Mach Schnell with upwards of 20 people the past 2 years. With the standard route being particularly ugly this year, Eddie and Mark Meisner got out there by traversing the west side of the ridge past Lone Pine with just 4 other people. I decided to go just partway out there and find something interesting to ski down. Very few people had been there, so most of the top surface was untouched cream cheese. Due to the low tide conditions I tried to ski in/near the few tracks I saw to avoid being cliffed out. I squeezed through a few cruxes in South Chute like this one.
I had to step over a few small rocks here and there but overall South Chute skied fairly well for my last run.
Total Friday was 19,900. I got down just before 4PM, but decided another run was not necessary with one more day skiing at Alta with admin & company.