Snowbird 5/17-18/08

[FirstTracks]

It's been a while since I posted some skiing stuff here, so here goes.

Saturday at Snowbird was Day 60 for me this season. Temps in the mid 60s under a blazing sun, with wall-to-wall corn. What's not to like?

Hard to believe, then, that I had a hard time motivating myself Saturday morning to get up there and didn't even leave the house until 11. I hadn't skied in three weeks. Half of our usual posse was spending the weekend at a mountain biking festival in the San Rafael Desert. Driving though the Valley Saturday morning I passed people towing boats and campers, bicyclists out riding and golfers swinging clubs. With temps at 5,000 feet reaching the mid-80s I had visions of Elmer's glue. I was never so happy to be wrong.

I headed up the Peruvian chair and through the tunnel into Mineral Basin, and even skier's left of Lone Star wasn't yet porridge. Skiing under the chair Bobby Danger and Skidog passed overhead, and the two waited atop Hidden Peak for me to arrive.

After that we discovered that Old Lady's was in her prime -- an inch or two of perfect billiard table-smooth corn over a supportable base, and we ripped it up again and again, lap after lap, quickly running into Marc_C as well. A couple of runs later Bob's friends Jennifer and Georgie joined us for a trip out to Hourglass, and the run after that we ventured even further into Gad Chutes, all the while remaining mindful of our need to cut back in time to return to Little Cloud.

After a couple of hours things were finally starting to get heavy and we wrapped things up with a trip down Great Scott to cold beers under the hot sun along the Bypass Road.

It just doesn't get any better than this.

And thank God for digital cameras! I somehow shot 395 frames Saturday, which with a film camera would've left me broke. Here are some of the best of them:

Anderson's:



Hellgate, leading into Alta. To illustrate just how much snow is left, that entire face across the road is south-facing.



Mid-Cirque:



Tram maintenance is progressing. Here they're working on the rope hangers:



Upper Peruvian Gulch:



Sunday Cliffs in Mineral Basin:



Bobby Danger in Hourglass:



Skidog in Hourglass:



Jennifer in Hourglass:



Skidog in Gad Chutes:



Marc_C on Great Scott:



Skidog on Great Scott:



Bob's friend Ira on Great Scott:



Bobby Danger on Great Scott:



Still wall-to-wall cover even at the base:



Sunday was a carbon copy of Saturday, except that:

1. I forgot my camera for the first time in I can't remember how long (I used my Treo for a couple of shots below).
2. We ventured into Alta.
3. A friend's wife Robin was in town from NY for a day of skiing ahead of a business meeting.
4. Skidog was absent. Bobby Danger and Marc_C were back for more.

Alta still has wall-to-wall coverage, which we found on our first run after riding up Peruvian, traveling through the tunnel and heading back up Mineral Basin Express. We hiked up to the High Baldy Traverse and struck out past Memorial Buttress to where the Baldy Shoulder gate is. We skied Tombstone, caught a fast traverse to the top of Wildcat, then headed down through Wildcat to Westward Ho. It was a great side-trip on a great day.

Cover in Alta's Collins Gulch is still seamless a month after the ski area closed:



Bobby Danger on Baldy Shoulder:



Robin on Baldy Shoulder:



We all got a kick out of listening to Robin say over and over how the snow "exceeded her expectations." Once again, by 2 pm things started getting heavy and we packed it in with a beer along the Bypass Road.

My face is cooked from the blazing sunshine this weekend. I'd still have a glow at work all week nonetheless.

[Sombeech]

A 7 month ski season? That's awesome!

[fishwater]

Nice report and very accurate on LCC right now.
We skied Alta Thursday night and found great conditions considering it was May 22! We skinned Albion basin up to Piss Pass and backwards on the High T and into Eddies High. Snow was consistant and as far as I'm concerned moderately dangerous with 10" of new sitting on a frozen layer which hadn't fully bonded. Great skiing for this late in the year but don't forget to bring a partner,knowledge and proper equipment in the BC cause it's a mid winter snowpack that keeps providing the goods .

[FirstTracks]

Snow was consistant and as far as I'm concerned moderately dangerous with 10" of new sitting on a frozen layer which hadn't fully bonded. Great skiing for this late in the year but don't forget to bring a partner,knowledge and proper equipment in the BC cause it's a mid winter snowpack that keeps providing the goods .

Skidog was up at the Bird today and they were skiing the Peruvian ridgeline above the top station of Peruvian Express when they kicked off a slough that buried the unloading area of the chair. I'm sure that the lifties weren't pleased.

It's clearly not bonding well.