E. Nigma
New member
I can't think of a better way to start a mid-April work day than with a foot of medium-density pow over 157 inches of settled mid-mountain base!
The chain/4x4 road restrictions in LCC this morning were a joke -- there wasn't a single flake of snow on the asphalt all the way to Snowbird. I pulled into the lot at 9:05, with about 75 other cars in the lot, and skied right onto Gadzoom at 9:10.
I got to the top of the chair and was surprised to see Little Cloud sitting dead-still with no sign of activity, so the first run featured face shots through Gadzoom Trees before I high-tailed it over to the Tram. This was no spring cement, I'm guessing it was maybe 7% or so and deep. Given the deserted lift queue at Gadzoom, I was shocked to see the line stretching clear across the Tram Plaza -- it must've been 7 or 8 cabins long. :shock: I was in no mood for that, nor did I have the time before going to work, so I slipped back down to Gadzoom. Alas, everyone else had the same idea, and the lift line was now double the length of the established queue. :?
En route, though, I opted to hop on Wilbere for a few quick untracked turns. The liftie loading that chair said that he was about to head up to get Little Cloud started. :roll: He said that it would be another 30 minutes at least. I know that it's late season and all, but I'd think that you'd want to keep enough staff on hand to at least run the lifts that you plan to run. Gad 2 and Peruvian are already done for the season, and they're now rerouting traffic from Bass Highway down to the tram via the spot where folks normally hike up in preparation for construction to begin on the new Peruvian chair.
Imagine my surprise, then, to arrive atop Gadzoom to see Little Cloud spinning and loaded. I headed down and encountered another healthy liftline there, where I rode up with Jack who was visiting from Durango, Colo. We struck up a conversation, and I invited him to tag along into the Gad Chutes.
We headed for Candleabra, which was an odd mix of deep, wind-affected snow over a sun-crust base. The lower we got, the better it got, and by the time we arrived in Restaurant Row the skiing was positively a delight.
We were ready for more, so this time we repeated but planned to go further out to South Chute or Wilbere Bowl, but were distracted by untracked left standing in lower Peruvian Cirque. We had face shots aplenty, continuing to work left at the end of each pitch to prolong the joy. Back down at Bass Highway, we bid our farewells as Jack headed to Snowbird Center and I headed for work.
The chain/4x4 road restrictions in LCC this morning were a joke -- there wasn't a single flake of snow on the asphalt all the way to Snowbird. I pulled into the lot at 9:05, with about 75 other cars in the lot, and skied right onto Gadzoom at 9:10.
I got to the top of the chair and was surprised to see Little Cloud sitting dead-still with no sign of activity, so the first run featured face shots through Gadzoom Trees before I high-tailed it over to the Tram. This was no spring cement, I'm guessing it was maybe 7% or so and deep. Given the deserted lift queue at Gadzoom, I was shocked to see the line stretching clear across the Tram Plaza -- it must've been 7 or 8 cabins long. :shock: I was in no mood for that, nor did I have the time before going to work, so I slipped back down to Gadzoom. Alas, everyone else had the same idea, and the lift line was now double the length of the established queue. :?
En route, though, I opted to hop on Wilbere for a few quick untracked turns. The liftie loading that chair said that he was about to head up to get Little Cloud started. :roll: He said that it would be another 30 minutes at least. I know that it's late season and all, but I'd think that you'd want to keep enough staff on hand to at least run the lifts that you plan to run. Gad 2 and Peruvian are already done for the season, and they're now rerouting traffic from Bass Highway down to the tram via the spot where folks normally hike up in preparation for construction to begin on the new Peruvian chair.
Imagine my surprise, then, to arrive atop Gadzoom to see Little Cloud spinning and loaded. I headed down and encountered another healthy liftline there, where I rode up with Jack who was visiting from Durango, Colo. We struck up a conversation, and I invited him to tag along into the Gad Chutes.
We headed for Candleabra, which was an odd mix of deep, wind-affected snow over a sun-crust base. The lower we got, the better it got, and by the time we arrived in Restaurant Row the skiing was positively a delight.
We were ready for more, so this time we repeated but planned to go further out to South Chute or Wilbere Bowl, but were distracted by untracked left standing in lower Peruvian Cirque. We had face shots aplenty, continuing to work left at the end of each pitch to prolong the joy. Back down at Bass Highway, we bid our farewells as Jack headed to Snowbird Center and I headed for work.
