AltaBird, UT 2/23/08

[FirstTracks]

Day 37: Dale's bummer

Well, with the next day on the hill coming tomorrow, I suppose it's high time I get Saturday's report posted. Sorry for the delay, folks, things have been stupid busy, combined with Internet issues here.

First off: traffic. It was surprising, given that it wasn't a powder day, although peak season with bright sunshine and moderate temperatures after 15 inches or so the day before will do wonders to bring folks out of the woodwork. As a result I was late for the 9 am meeting time. The posse was heading out for a first run on Wildcat as I was walking in. I waved them off for a first run without me, and hooked up with Amy and Pat in GMD to join them for run #2:



Bob Dangerous wanted to do a run down Greeley Hill to North Rustler, so it was up Collins and out, although the newly-opened Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder looked mighty inviting:



No matter, Greeley Hill was dressed in fluffy untracked goodness:



For run #2 we opted for an adventure. We rode Sunnyside, Cecret and Supreme to head for a Catherine's/Patsy, but I wanted to go far out on Patsy...way out. This was a 90-minute run, ensuring that I'd only get 2 runs in before lunch.

The others dropped in early, but jonesing for freshies I went out across Last Chance to the west-facing lines off Catherine's Pass proper, only to catch up to the others on the climb out toward Patsy Marley. We got spread out a bit (although some of us not as spread out as I would've liked, as those who were there will understand ) and kept going...:



...bypassing wide swaths of west-facing untracked to a northwest-facing line I knew that would drop us down to the summer road below Albion:



We stared down at untracked bliss:



I wanted to film, and Dale offered to take the camera and shoot. I handed it to him, he slung it around his neck and pushed off. One turn, two turns...poof! Dale had slid over a small rock outcropping and suffered a slow-motion twisting fall. He laid there. I yelled down. He groaned. I groaned.

I skied down to him and he was in obvious pain emanating from his left knee, the same one that he had surgery on last year and was just now rebounding from. His wife Pat and Marc_C skied down to us. I did an ever-so-brief survey of his knee, and first straightened his good leg to give him a platform to hold himself on, then slowly and gingerly straightened the bad leg. He tried to stand up, and quickly fell back to the snow.

We had to assess the situation. We were well out of bounds and a hike from the in-bounds terrain. Getting a sled in there wouldn't be easy, but it could be done if necessary. After about 5 minutes Dale decided that he'd try to ski down, which meant a slowly descending traverse and sitting down at the end to turn himself around, then traversing in the other direction. Slowly but surely he managed to get himself down first to the summer road, then onto Magic Mile to ease himself down to the clinic at GMD.

Sure enough, the doctor there diagnosed a torn ACL (which, ironically, isn't the problem he had knee surgery for). Pat of course went with him, while the rest of us went to lunch at Rustler and stayed in touch via phone.

For those of us who actually got to ski it, it was divine:


After lunch Bob, Skidog, Tele Jon and I headed for Snowbird while the others remained at Alta.

(Chamonix Chutes):


Honestly, I should've quit a couple of hours before I did at 4, forcing myself to ski groomers for the last few runs while the others chose more interesting terrain options:



I pulled one last reserve of energy, though, for the last run, hiking to the Baldy Traverse and re-entering Alta high on Baldy Shoulder at the armpit gate...:



...right as patrol came up behind us to close it:



We romped through surprisingly light knee-deep avi debris back down into Alta to close out the day.



And once again, video will follow someday soon.

(On Sunday, BTW, I bagged. The forecast was for 70 mph wind at 9,000 feet and 90 mph gusts at 11,000 feet, all with the added bonus of stinging, wind-driven graupel. I checked the Snowtel at 9,900 feet at Alta at 7 am and it was already reaching the mid-30s. I went back to bed.)

[stefan]

thanks for the report and the photos