Alta, UT 2/27/2016

Admin · Feb 28, 2016

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!

Marc_C · Feb 28, 2016

Admin":2z64f1h6 said:
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.

Can't shed any insight on the differences between the Spineys and West Rust, but one of the things I usually do if there's even a remote question of WR conditions is to do something off of the Saddle Traverse that only commits you to a handful of turns. And if the T is sketch or worse ("death slide"), then it's a pretty good bet WR will suck.

I've made the same mistake in the past and learned my lessons!

Admin · Feb 28, 2016

Good advice. Given how incredibly soft the Spinys were, I figured that there was no way that WR could have been so dramatically different, but as mentioned -- I was dead wrong.

Tony Crocker · Feb 29, 2016

These are always tough calls when spring arrives early. You get an exceptionally warm day that creates the melt/freeze, then an on an ensuing moderately warm day the sun isn't quite strong enough to do its job effectively.

Maybe the Spiny's are a touch more SW and West Rustler more NW. The West Rustler runs become progressively more north facing the farther out you go.

I agree with MarcC that Sunspot or something off the lower Saddle Traverse is a good test. I remember doing something analogous on my day at Porter's in NZ. I was skeptical I would get corn in mid-July dead-of-winter, but happily I was wrong. viewtopic.php?t=9001

Admin · Feb 29, 2016

Tony Crocker":2aqqhsxg said:
I agree with MarcC that Sunspot or something off the lower Saddle Traverse is a good test.

He mentioned something on lower West Rustler off the Saddle Traverse, a suggestion that I agree with. He didn't mention Sunspot, which would be a horrible test as it distinctly faces northwest, unlike all of the WR lines between Tyson's Slot and Watson Line.

stan · Mar 1, 2016

I can testify that the West Rustler face has been a skating rink for the last two days. Patrol closed the High T for yesterday morning because it was bulletproof. It softened some by the afternoon, allowing access to Thirds and High Boy, both of which were firm chalk, but skied very well. Today I made the mistake of going out Saddle Traverse after a quite delightful run down the trees next to Fred's Slot, where what little snow we got today had settled between the bumps, making for nice soft turns. However, there was not enough and the snow was just too firm to move and settle on WR, despite the wind. This was not a "West Buffler" day.

On the plus side, thanks to encouragement from my daughter, I did my first high Baldy Shoulder yesterday, which was delightful. The cliffs at the bottom have always intimidated me, but aren't so obvious when you are actually up there.

Most everything that is north facing is still skiing well. West facing slopes are baked and frozen; northeast facing stuff is generally OK, especially High Greeley. East facing slopes like Yellow Trail and Greeley Bowl, not so good. There was a skim of graupel today, and a lot of wind.