AltaBird, UT 2/11/2012

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Day 36: Pretty darned good.

We had a surprisingly large group today, including Bobby Danger, Skidog , AmyZ, rdwore, and a guy I know from a Facebook group named Michael, plus appearances that ranged from short to long term from Marc_C, rdwore's friend John from NYC, and tirolerpeter. Tony Crocker's in town, but he opted to go to Snowbasin so Crocker wasn't there today.

What he missed was a mighty fine day of skiing in Little Cottonwood Canyon. As cold as last weekend was, today was rather warm. There was no chill at all in the air when exiting the car in the Wildcat lot. It wasn't warm enough to turn surfaces into anything other than winter-like snow, but you could ride the lifts without gloves and be quite comfortable. It got up into the mid-50s again today in the Salt Lake Valley.

Light this morning, however, was as flat as could be. But so was Ballroom/Baldy Shoulder, which opened this morning for the first time in recent days after ASP bombed Main Chute and got it to slide. Although you could feel the base out there it was topped by a few inches of creamy, untracked snow, and moguls had disappeared from lines like Harold's that previously had them.

By midday those clouds even started to drop a little bit of snow. Nothing that would matter, but it seemed to be the first wave of the approaching storm.

That made what would follow rather strange, and somewhat surprising. I was considering calling it a day when we all decided to head for Snowbird a little while after finishing lunch. We traveled to Alta West via Westward Ho, which hadn't been skied and offered some untracked, albeit very thick and heavy snow down to the Blackjack Road. We rode the Peruvian chair and headed through the tunnel. Approaching the far portal things ahead looked unusually bright, and we emerged from the tunnel to find Mineral Basin in actual honest-to-goodness sunlight.

While we were in the tunnel the clouds over upper LCC had mysteriously disappeared. Cobalt blue skies sat over both Snowbird and Alta, revealing exceptional visibility for the remainder of the day. I wanted to ski Ski Patrol Gully for the first time this season, but we were first thwarted by the rope line beyond Chamonix 1, the gate through which was closed. We figured that we'd simply access it from the top of Baldy Express, but the Sugar Cliffs gate was closed, too.

So we opted instead to take a lap on the front side. Up Mineral Basin Express and out Road to Provo, which was strangely concave like a mini half pipe, and out to the Rasta Chutes, which were bump free and chalky, as was the lower half of Woopsie's. Up Little Cloud and back into Mineral Basin, Hyena Ridge had the same snow as the Rastas did. The run was merely longer.

We boarded Baldy Express with 10 minutes to spare before it closed for the day, bringing us back to Alta. I cruised back to GMD, popped my boots off and called it a very full day.

Full, indeed...I got home and fell asleep for 2 hours.

There's no longer any substantial difference between snow cover at Alta and Snowbird, other than perhaps the exposed spots in Mineral Basin are a bit thinner. Tomorrow should be completely different than today. A weak storm is expected to bring snow beginning around midnight, with 5 to 10 inches expected before it winds down around this time tomorrow. It won't be bottomless, but it should bring us a clean slate with which to work.

Sent from my HP TouchPad running Android 4.0
 
Should I mention the obvious title issue? #-o

You guys are definitely on a different pattern than Colo the past week or two over there... Still cold and slightly snowy over this way (most places got 4-6" on today's report for example in Colo). Hoping to finally get back up Tomorrow myself. Crazy, crummy luck the past few weeks for me...
 
EMSC":2wvursmi said:
Should I mention the obvious title issue? #-o

Which I noticed when the reply alert email came in. #-o Still getting used to typing on a tablet. Sorry.
 
When I posted this last night, I was thinking that I didn't take any photos yesterday. I forgot about these two from before the lifts opened.

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As a group we make such a fashion statement! :lol:
 
Heard about it on Friday night at Suehiro from Louie, forgot about it come Saturday.
 
Why on earth wasn't it mentioned in Alta's conditions report that morning??? Maybe it was on the front page or something, but who doesn't have a direct link bookmarked? Really, does anyone go thru the front page on regularly visited sites? It's kinda like remembering that apparently there are still ads all over the net. I hear there are even some on this site!
 
Marc_C":20sno6de said:
Why on earth wasn't it mentioned in Alta's conditions report that morning???

From what I understand it's not an official Alta event. Apparently someone there's husband used to be a commercial fisherman back in Massachusetts and has a shipment arrive every year to hold the event.
 
Marc_C":23rxb9aw said:
apparently there are still ads all over the net. I hear there are even some on this site!
As the admin on another site, I couldn't let this pass without comment. So congrats, you figured out how to remove ads. I use a similar/same program that allows me to make exceptions for certain domains. And use those exceptions on sites that I find useful, that do not have other means of supporting themselves, that are not obnoxious with the ads. So... sltrib.com out, blogs I like, in.
To each his own but this is the equivalent of visiting a "suggested donation" museum and boasting later on that you donated a fat zero because it was only suggested.
Anybody else, I'd have been more circumspect but in my short time here I can see that Marc_C believes in constructive criticism.
 
Evren":2gkxx3sa said:
Marc_C":2gkxx3sa said:
apparently there are still ads all over the net. I hear there are even some on this site!
As the admin on another site, I couldn't let this pass without comment. So congrats, you figured out how to remove ads. I use a similar/same program that allows me to make exceptions for certain domains. And use those exceptions on sites that I find useful, that do not have other means of supporting themselves, that are not obnoxious with the ads. So... sltrib.com out, blogs I like, in.
To each his own but this is the equivalent of visiting a "suggested donation" museum and boasting later on that you donated a fat zero because it was only suggested.
Anybody else, I'd have been more circumspect but in my short time here I can see that Marc_C believes in constructive criticism.
What you haven't seen is the constant banter and slagging amongst our group. Admin and I have known each other for about 15 years - many of those before ever meeting face to face. Thus we may each suggest to the other that they do inappropriate things with farm animals with no hard feelings. I do happen to have AdBlock turned off for this domain, along with a number of others for precisely the reasons you suggest. I've even clicked-through on occasion. It might be beneficial for you to presume a bit less.
 
Marc_C":3rob8xop said:
Admin and I have known each other for about 15 years - many of those before ever meeting face to face. Thus we may each suggest to the other that they do inappropriate things with farm animals with no hard feelings.

:rotfl:

Yep, I've on more than one occasion had to apologize for our banter to a poor unsuspecting soul who just happened to join our chair via the singles line.
 
Bobby Danger":1f5nm3q1 said:
i'm sure it sounds abussssssive to a stranger !!!!!!!!

I agree, it's pretty "baaaaaaaaaaad."

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(Hey, I just wrapped up a 13-hour work day...cut me some slack.)
 
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