Tony Crocker flew through Salt Lake City for a day at Snowbird today. We hooked up with Marc_C, and friends Dale, Pat and Bob Dangerous.
It was a day for (naturally, as you've seen by now) a ton of snow, bluebird skies, and good friends. I quit a bit early, and didn't take a lot of photos. Tony took a bunch -- including a group shot -- and I'm sure that he'll post some when he gets back.
Anyway, I managed to log 16,775 verts. We got a late start, riding our first tram at 9:30. I didn't think that it would get below freezing last night, but it certainly did, as our first run down Mark Malou showed. I think that I might have lost a filling or two on that one. In retrospect, it was a good thing that we hadn't shown up earlier anyway.
We decided to venture a bit lower, and by the time we hit the top of Big Emma it was a bit softer but not quite ready yet. We therefore shot over to the tram and headed up to ski Chip's. We shortcutted the cat track corners on upper Chip's and found snow still not quite there yet, but softer than anything we'd found by that point. A high-speed cruise down the rest of Chip's brought us to the decision point at the Rothman Way cutoff, and by that point I was getting a bit sick of riding the tram and convinced the others to head across to Gadzoom.
All but Bob opted to lap the softer snow on Gadzoom, and Bob headed up to Little Cloud and Great Scott as the rest of us did a high-speed cruise back to the base. Now it was Tony's and my turn to head for the Ho Chi Minh trail in search of something steep and ready as the rest of the crew kept cruising.
We slipped up to the top of Great Scott. We stood there for a few minutes, poking at the vertical side of the cornice with our poles to try to gauge snow softness as we hoped for a guinea pig to show up and dive in. None did, so Tony was the guinea pig. Honestly, the stuff was darned near perfect at that point, and big, steep turns eventually yielded to the gloppier snow on the flats below. We therefore traversed out to the right to get back to the groomed Chip's, and sped down to join all of the others for lunch on the tram plaza. It was getting downright toasty at this point -- it may have been only 60 degrees or so, but it positively felt about 80 in the direct high-altitude sun.
Back at the top of Hidden Peak, Tony had been eyeing the Rock Chute from the tram, and the fact that he'd never seen it skiable before was too much of an enticement for him to ignore. The rest of us skied Regulator Johnson and went back up Little Cloud. The heat of the sun continued to build and the snow was starting to get much heavier. I'd planned to head out to ski a line to skier's left of Jaws, but the heat had obviously given the patrol the willies and they closed the Cirque Traverse gates. From the size of some of the wet slides that came down in-bounds yesterday afternoon after the 2:30 pm closing time, I understand their apprehension. I instead headed back to the base and called it a day as I waited for the others to finish up their day.
There's a ton of snow in them thar hills, and frankly there are rumors starting to float about that Snowbird may open for some weekends beyond their scheduled May 30 closing. They're only unconfirmed rumors at this point, though. Some little things are starting to lend creedence to the rumors, such as Gadzoom running today when it wasn't scheduled to be, the surprise midweek opening for powder days this past week, and even the resumption of the Snowbird Shuttle after it had been shut down for the season. We'll see what happens.
It was a day for (naturally, as you've seen by now) a ton of snow, bluebird skies, and good friends. I quit a bit early, and didn't take a lot of photos. Tony took a bunch -- including a group shot -- and I'm sure that he'll post some when he gets back.
Anyway, I managed to log 16,775 verts. We got a late start, riding our first tram at 9:30. I didn't think that it would get below freezing last night, but it certainly did, as our first run down Mark Malou showed. I think that I might have lost a filling or two on that one. In retrospect, it was a good thing that we hadn't shown up earlier anyway.
We decided to venture a bit lower, and by the time we hit the top of Big Emma it was a bit softer but not quite ready yet. We therefore shot over to the tram and headed up to ski Chip's. We shortcutted the cat track corners on upper Chip's and found snow still not quite there yet, but softer than anything we'd found by that point. A high-speed cruise down the rest of Chip's brought us to the decision point at the Rothman Way cutoff, and by that point I was getting a bit sick of riding the tram and convinced the others to head across to Gadzoom.
All but Bob opted to lap the softer snow on Gadzoom, and Bob headed up to Little Cloud and Great Scott as the rest of us did a high-speed cruise back to the base. Now it was Tony's and my turn to head for the Ho Chi Minh trail in search of something steep and ready as the rest of the crew kept cruising.
We slipped up to the top of Great Scott. We stood there for a few minutes, poking at the vertical side of the cornice with our poles to try to gauge snow softness as we hoped for a guinea pig to show up and dive in. None did, so Tony was the guinea pig. Honestly, the stuff was darned near perfect at that point, and big, steep turns eventually yielded to the gloppier snow on the flats below. We therefore traversed out to the right to get back to the groomed Chip's, and sped down to join all of the others for lunch on the tram plaza. It was getting downright toasty at this point -- it may have been only 60 degrees or so, but it positively felt about 80 in the direct high-altitude sun.
Back at the top of Hidden Peak, Tony had been eyeing the Rock Chute from the tram, and the fact that he'd never seen it skiable before was too much of an enticement for him to ignore. The rest of us skied Regulator Johnson and went back up Little Cloud. The heat of the sun continued to build and the snow was starting to get much heavier. I'd planned to head out to ski a line to skier's left of Jaws, but the heat had obviously given the patrol the willies and they closed the Cirque Traverse gates. From the size of some of the wet slides that came down in-bounds yesterday afternoon after the 2:30 pm closing time, I understand their apprehension. I instead headed back to the base and called it a day as I waited for the others to finish up their day.
There's a ton of snow in them thar hills, and frankly there are rumors starting to float about that Snowbird may open for some weekends beyond their scheduled May 30 closing. They're only unconfirmed rumors at this point, though. Some little things are starting to lend creedence to the rumors, such as Gadzoom running today when it wasn't scheduled to be, the surprise midweek opening for powder days this past week, and even the resumption of the Snowbird Shuttle after it had been shut down for the season. We'll see what happens.
