Day 62: Unexpected powder turns.
The wind was gusting strongly enough yesterday to knock over my poles in the parking lot and blow one of them clean underneath my truck to the other side. Clouds were thickening ahead of an approaching storm, and after things softened and wetted in Friday's warm sun I therefore had little hope that they'd soften at all on Saturday. I figured that it would largely be a firm and fast day on the groomers.
We experimented nonetheless, and on our first run we headed out Backside to see what we could find.
After nearly getting blown off our feet we found pockets where the windblown snow had filled in the old tracks and proto-moguls from Friday to deliver a surprisingly smooth surface. Perhaps the day wouldn't be so bad after all! :-k
The EBT had been closed first thing as the wind was howling across Baldy and blowing a steady plume of snow onto the slopes of East Baldy, so I was surprised to see that ASP had opened the EBT. With our return route now open we boarded Sugarloaf rather than head all the way around to the Transfer Tow to return to Collins. On our way up the hill, however, we spied that ASP had actually opened Cecret Saddle, which was downright shocking in these conditions. What we found there absolutely made our day.
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We went back for a second helping and we were able to lay a second set of tracks right next to our first. Amazing!
From there we headed over to Supreme and found soft, dry, loose snow in Tower 12 Chute. Bobby announced that he was heading over to Snowbird to meet up with Paul and Jeffrey, and AmyZ, Telejon and I followed.
We decided to check out the Sugar Cliffs, which was a tremendous mistake. The chute itself was bombproof, and the remaining slopes over there were survival turns in sludge on top of concrete.
We did, however, find soft wind-sifted snow on Old Man's and again in Shot 13.
I stuck it out until 2 p.m., when clouds thickened ahead of the approaching storm and the light went flat as hell. I figured that I'd leave some gas in the tank for today's storm.
The winds are still howling (it's gusting to nearly 40 atop Collins and 62 at the top of Baldy), and temperatures here at the house actually rose overnight and are now in the low 60s even at 6:30 a.m. The front, however, is expected to arrive late morning and dump a ferocious amount of snow, possibly nearly a foot by the end of the day today. This should be one of those days that just keeps getting better and better as the day wears on.
The wind was gusting strongly enough yesterday to knock over my poles in the parking lot and blow one of them clean underneath my truck to the other side. Clouds were thickening ahead of an approaching storm, and after things softened and wetted in Friday's warm sun I therefore had little hope that they'd soften at all on Saturday. I figured that it would largely be a firm and fast day on the groomers.
We experimented nonetheless, and on our first run we headed out Backside to see what we could find.
After nearly getting blown off our feet we found pockets where the windblown snow had filled in the old tracks and proto-moguls from Friday to deliver a surprisingly smooth surface. Perhaps the day wouldn't be so bad after all! :-k
The EBT had been closed first thing as the wind was howling across Baldy and blowing a steady plume of snow onto the slopes of East Baldy, so I was surprised to see that ASP had opened the EBT. With our return route now open we boarded Sugarloaf rather than head all the way around to the Transfer Tow to return to Collins. On our way up the hill, however, we spied that ASP had actually opened Cecret Saddle, which was downright shocking in these conditions. What we found there absolutely made our day.
\
/ We went back for a second helping and we were able to lay a second set of tracks right next to our first. Amazing!
From there we headed over to Supreme and found soft, dry, loose snow in Tower 12 Chute. Bobby announced that he was heading over to Snowbird to meet up with Paul and Jeffrey, and AmyZ, Telejon and I followed.
We decided to check out the Sugar Cliffs, which was a tremendous mistake. The chute itself was bombproof, and the remaining slopes over there were survival turns in sludge on top of concrete.
We did, however, find soft wind-sifted snow on Old Man's and again in Shot 13.
I stuck it out until 2 p.m., when clouds thickened ahead of the approaching storm and the light went flat as hell. I figured that I'd leave some gas in the tank for today's storm.
The winds are still howling (it's gusting to nearly 40 atop Collins and 62 at the top of Baldy), and temperatures here at the house actually rose overnight and are now in the low 60s even at 6:30 a.m. The front, however, is expected to arrive late morning and dump a ferocious amount of snow, possibly nearly a foot by the end of the day today. This should be one of those days that just keeps getting better and better as the day wears on.