Marc_C
Active member
Several feet of new snow, with continuing storm....I told my manager on Tuesday afternoon not to expect me on Wednesday (3/30) - I intended to be at Alta.
LCC initially had an estimated 9am opening. At around 8:15a it was changed to 10am and at 9:30 it was again changed to noon. BCC opened sometime near 10-ish. At 11a, Snowbird's site was still giving the noon estimate but their snowphone was saying "...sometime this afternoon..." while Alta was simply saying "...there is no estimate..."
Typically, once the estimated opening of LCC goes to noon, it's unlikely that the canyon will open that day. If it does, it's likely only to be either to Snowbird Entry #4 (and closed beyond the Cliff Lodge & parking garage) or only to downhill traffic for a half hour or so.
Sooooo.......I ate lunch and headed up to Solitude for the afternoon. Got there around noon-thirty and had a blast in deep deep deep powder. If a trail was ungroomed and of blue square pitch, you really couldn't make it through the <somewhat denser than typical since it's spring> powder unless you straight-lined it or took _big_ swooping turns that didn't deviate that much from the fall line. But face shots abounded and it was insanely deep in the tree shots like Headwall Forest and the Black Forest in Honeycomb Canyon. Yeah, the lake effect bands absolutely hammered us. We went over the magic 200" base mark Wednesday night. I've totally lost track of snowfall - something like 11 feet over the past 2 weeks.*
Thursday Alta was just UFB!!! Bright sun, blue, blue sky, and lots of powder. Despite arriving at 10a - the canyon didn't open till 8:30 and traffic was huge; my usual 25 min. drive took about 100 - there was still plenty of either fresh (Fred's Trees, Ballroom & Baldy Shoulder thanks to a rope drop at the gates at 10:30) or easily farmed lines between the tracks all over West Rustler. Both High Rustler and Eagle's Nest were heavenly as was Thirds and Gunsight. Things got a bit heavier in the afternoon as the spring sun did it's work, but the final three runs of Jitterbug, Stonecrusher to Lone Pine, and Greeley Slot (aka High Nowhere - not to be confused with Eddie's High Nowhere) were still softer than some of the more baked stuff.
*Finally saw the storm totals the other night - 168" or 14 feet in 14 days. Of course now all that former powder has a nasty breakable crust in the early morning that rapidly turns to damp, then sticky, then downright sloppy snow as the day's heat and sun toasts everything. Supposed to be in the low 50's at 8K' tomorrow.
LCC initially had an estimated 9am opening. At around 8:15a it was changed to 10am and at 9:30 it was again changed to noon. BCC opened sometime near 10-ish. At 11a, Snowbird's site was still giving the noon estimate but their snowphone was saying "...sometime this afternoon..." while Alta was simply saying "...there is no estimate..."
Typically, once the estimated opening of LCC goes to noon, it's unlikely that the canyon will open that day. If it does, it's likely only to be either to Snowbird Entry #4 (and closed beyond the Cliff Lodge & parking garage) or only to downhill traffic for a half hour or so.
Sooooo.......I ate lunch and headed up to Solitude for the afternoon. Got there around noon-thirty and had a blast in deep deep deep powder. If a trail was ungroomed and of blue square pitch, you really couldn't make it through the <somewhat denser than typical since it's spring> powder unless you straight-lined it or took _big_ swooping turns that didn't deviate that much from the fall line. But face shots abounded and it was insanely deep in the tree shots like Headwall Forest and the Black Forest in Honeycomb Canyon. Yeah, the lake effect bands absolutely hammered us. We went over the magic 200" base mark Wednesday night. I've totally lost track of snowfall - something like 11 feet over the past 2 weeks.*
Thursday Alta was just UFB!!! Bright sun, blue, blue sky, and lots of powder. Despite arriving at 10a - the canyon didn't open till 8:30 and traffic was huge; my usual 25 min. drive took about 100 - there was still plenty of either fresh (Fred's Trees, Ballroom & Baldy Shoulder thanks to a rope drop at the gates at 10:30) or easily farmed lines between the tracks all over West Rustler. Both High Rustler and Eagle's Nest were heavenly as was Thirds and Gunsight. Things got a bit heavier in the afternoon as the spring sun did it's work, but the final three runs of Jitterbug, Stonecrusher to Lone Pine, and Greeley Slot (aka High Nowhere - not to be confused with Eddie's High Nowhere) were still softer than some of the more baked stuff.
*Finally saw the storm totals the other night - 168" or 14 feet in 14 days. Of course now all that former powder has a nasty breakable crust in the early morning that rapidly turns to damp, then sticky, then downright sloppy snow as the day's heat and sun toasts everything. Supposed to be in the low 50's at 8K' tomorrow.
