Wow! With 4' of untracked 5% Utah fluff, what other word could there be than "Wow"?? <BR> <BR>Here I am on Thursday morning, and I'm still paying for Tuesday's adventures in the form of locked calf muscles (OK, so Alta all day yesterday didn't help matters, either.) Anyone in Utah when things are tracked out at the resorts should consider dropping 150 clams and heading out into the backcountry to join the Ski Utah guides for a day traveling between Snowbird, Alta, Brighton, Solitude, and Park City. <BR> <BR>I was on a Snowbird-to-Snowbird tour, so we started the morning with a ride up the Lone Peak Tram. Dropping into Mineral Basin into what had previously been a backcountry portion of the tour, we hopped the Baldy Express and crossed into Alta, working our way to the Supreme Chair. <BR> <BR>It was here, however, that things got fun, heading O.B. across Catherine's Pass and down into Brighton on a convoluted up-and-down route that included some shots in the high-40s such as the Dog Lake Chutes: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3549.jpg" ALT="Dog Lake Chutes"> <BR> <BR>Lots of traversing between Alta and Brighton: <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3550.jpg" ALT="Lots of traversing between Alta and Brighton"> <BR> <BR>Looking down into Brighton: <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3551.jpg" ALT="Looking down into Brighton"> <BR> <BR>From Brighton, it was up the Millicent Chair into some of the backcountry on the west side of Mt. Millicent and down into Solitude for lunch. From the top of Solitude's Summit Chair, we struck out across the Highway to Heaven traverse: <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3552.jpg" ALT="the Highway to Heaven traverse"> <BR> <BR>We then bootpacked up a portion of the ridge separating Wolverine Cirque from Grizzly Gulch. It was more untracked fluff dropping into the latter down to the Alta snowcat skiing cat road, then dipping left and right for more freshies en route back to Alta. <BR> <BR>Looking down into Alta from Grizzly Gulch: <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3553.jpg" ALT="Looking down into Alta from Grizzly Gulch"> <BR> <BR>Looking back into Grizzly Gulch from Alta: <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/9/3554.jpg" ALT="Looking back into Grizzly Gulch from Alta"> <BR> <BR>Once at Albion base, it was up the Albion and Sugarloaf chairs, back into Mineral Basin, and back to the summit of Lone Peak for a final 4:00 run back to Snowbird's base. All told, about 12,000 vertical feet. <BR> <BR>Watch for a full feature story here on FTO in the next few months. In the meantime, understand that a lot of traversing and gradual ascent is part of the game on this tour, so good physical condition and the ability to ski virtually any potential snow condition is a must.