Day 40: The wind does its dirty deed
The Evil One (TEO) was visiting from Vermont for a few days. He'd gone up to Powder Mountain while I worked on Friday, and for Saturday we headed up together to Solitude.
Howling winds had done their damage to the approximately 12 inches of cold smoke that had fallen mid-week, leaving heinous wind slab and clean-stripped crust in their wake. This left a colossal disappointment of widely varying surfaces, and it seemed that there was no aspect that avoided this fate. We tried everything: Honeycomb, Black Forest, Headwall Forest, one of the chutes in Evergreen, front side runs, etc. Front side steepish groomers were scratchy. Skied areas in Headwall Forest and that Evergreen shot yielded the best snow of the day.
At least we were at Solitude -- neither Collins at Alta nor the Tram at Snowbird ran on Saturday due to wind holds.
We met up with snowave and his friend Corey for most of the day. Great to spend another day with you, snowave!
The day started out bright, sunny and warm, albeit with a gusting wind at higher elevations. A high overcast moved in for the afternoon as wind speeds intensified.
For our last run, TEO and I headed out of bounds out the Highway to Heaven gate toward Twin Lakes Pass, choosing a northeast-facing line to drop back to Twin Lakes Reservoir, followed by an exhausting schlep back out to the dam, the SolBright Trail, and eventually to Moonbeam Base. It took what little wind I had left out of my sails, and I collapsed in a heap on the couch that night.
Total vertical skied: 15K+ IIRC. I don't have my Suunto S6 with me as I'm posting this, so I'll add those stats later.
The Evil One (TEO) was visiting from Vermont for a few days. He'd gone up to Powder Mountain while I worked on Friday, and for Saturday we headed up together to Solitude.
Howling winds had done their damage to the approximately 12 inches of cold smoke that had fallen mid-week, leaving heinous wind slab and clean-stripped crust in their wake. This left a colossal disappointment of widely varying surfaces, and it seemed that there was no aspect that avoided this fate. We tried everything: Honeycomb, Black Forest, Headwall Forest, one of the chutes in Evergreen, front side runs, etc. Front side steepish groomers were scratchy. Skied areas in Headwall Forest and that Evergreen shot yielded the best snow of the day.
At least we were at Solitude -- neither Collins at Alta nor the Tram at Snowbird ran on Saturday due to wind holds.
We met up with snowave and his friend Corey for most of the day. Great to spend another day with you, snowave!
The day started out bright, sunny and warm, albeit with a gusting wind at higher elevations. A high overcast moved in for the afternoon as wind speeds intensified.
For our last run, TEO and I headed out of bounds out the Highway to Heaven gate toward Twin Lakes Pass, choosing a northeast-facing line to drop back to Twin Lakes Reservoir, followed by an exhausting schlep back out to the dam, the SolBright Trail, and eventually to Moonbeam Base. It took what little wind I had left out of my sails, and I collapsed in a heap on the couch that night.
Total vertical skied: 15K+ IIRC. I don't have my Suunto S6 with me as I'm posting this, so I'll add those stats later.
