Day 49: Changeable and unpredictable.
Yes, EMSC does exist:
(L to R) AmyZ, EMSC, Bobby Danger
EMSC was staying in Park City with nine other buddies/relatives for their annual guys' ski trip. Eight of them came over to Alta for the day on Saturday. Mira and Sima were still in town, as were two of their friends from NYC. Add to that a few of our usual posse, and it was clear from the first run that we had far too many people in one group.
So we split up for the skiing after making plans to reconvene for lunch. The day started off cloudless and warm, and Backside was ready for prime time shortly after opening. After a warm day on Friday and a hard re-freeze overnight, the High T was out of the question so we accessed North Rustler from a Backside traverse, finding dry, chalky snow in Bombay Chute. A few laps out the Shoulder revealed dry, chalky snow out there as well.
We all met for lunch at 12:30 at Watson Shelter, and while there Bobby received a message from Mike down in the Valley that a front had pushed through with clouds, wind and dust carried in from the desert. Sure enough, as we left Watson's we could see some convective clouds forming above Mount Superior, but we could also see that they unexpectedly opened the Baldy Chutes. EMSC and two of his companions had never been up there, so I grabbed my pack in my truck and we loaded Collins.
By the time we made it to the top of Sugarloaf, however, the weather had truly moved in and ASP re-closed the gate to the Baldy hike. ](*,) We opted for Devil's Castle as a second choice, finding loose, dry and lightly-tracked snow on the north-facing aspects above Cecret Lake.
We followed that up with a fun run in Tower 12 Chute on Supreme, and true spring corn in the most westward-facing of the Spiny Chutes just before 3 p.m. With such success in the Spinys I figured that West Rustler was now at its prime, too, and I couldn't have been more wrong.
I'm at a loss to understand why West Rustler was so rock hard, but perhaps it's because the front brought more cloud cover over there, or maybe because of the stiff westerly breeze that accompanied the front. Either way, the High T was still a death slide and Watson Line on West Rustler was a bone-rattling, filling-dislodging experience. It's one of the worst errors in judgment I can remember committing in the past few years.
We wrapped up the day with a Westward Ho off Wildcat (still dry and soft), and a couple of laps in Liftline Trees, the last of which was accessed via a mid-station load at 4:35 p.m. after Collins had stopped loading for the day from the bottom. It was a full day.
Great to meet and ski with you, EMSC!
Yes, EMSC does exist:
(L to R) AmyZ, EMSC, Bobby Danger
EMSC was staying in Park City with nine other buddies/relatives for their annual guys' ski trip. Eight of them came over to Alta for the day on Saturday. Mira and Sima were still in town, as were two of their friends from NYC. Add to that a few of our usual posse, and it was clear from the first run that we had far too many people in one group.
So we split up for the skiing after making plans to reconvene for lunch. The day started off cloudless and warm, and Backside was ready for prime time shortly after opening. After a warm day on Friday and a hard re-freeze overnight, the High T was out of the question so we accessed North Rustler from a Backside traverse, finding dry, chalky snow in Bombay Chute. A few laps out the Shoulder revealed dry, chalky snow out there as well.
We all met for lunch at 12:30 at Watson Shelter, and while there Bobby received a message from Mike down in the Valley that a front had pushed through with clouds, wind and dust carried in from the desert. Sure enough, as we left Watson's we could see some convective clouds forming above Mount Superior, but we could also see that they unexpectedly opened the Baldy Chutes. EMSC and two of his companions had never been up there, so I grabbed my pack in my truck and we loaded Collins.
By the time we made it to the top of Sugarloaf, however, the weather had truly moved in and ASP re-closed the gate to the Baldy hike. ](*,) We opted for Devil's Castle as a second choice, finding loose, dry and lightly-tracked snow on the north-facing aspects above Cecret Lake.
We followed that up with a fun run in Tower 12 Chute on Supreme, and true spring corn in the most westward-facing of the Spiny Chutes just before 3 p.m. With such success in the Spinys I figured that West Rustler was now at its prime, too, and I couldn't have been more wrong.
I'm at a loss to understand why West Rustler was so rock hard, but perhaps it's because the front brought more cloud cover over there, or maybe because of the stiff westerly breeze that accompanied the front. Either way, the High T was still a death slide and Watson Line on West Rustler was a bone-rattling, filling-dislodging experience. It's one of the worst errors in judgment I can remember committing in the past few years.
We wrapped up the day with a Westward Ho off Wildcat (still dry and soft), and a couple of laps in Liftline Trees, the last of which was accessed via a mid-station load at 4:35 p.m. after Collins had stopped loading for the day from the bottom. It was a full day.
Great to meet and ski with you, EMSC!