Alta, UT 2/26/2017

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Day 40: Leftovers.

Today was spent hunting for scraps of untracked that had been overlooked the past couple of days. Of course there wasn't much, but Albion Gully delivered untracked top-to-bottom, and there were other runs that included untracked sections. Most of my day was spent playing Pied Piper for an Eastern Bloc contingent of Serbians, Croatians and Russians, some of whom are friends and some are friends of those friends.

It was slightly below zero at opening but warmed rapidly to around 20ºF in the intense sun. As predicted the wind kicked up in the afternoon ahead of our Monday storm that's supposed to drop another 1-2 feet.

Strangely, the only photos I took today were from behind the wheel:

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(With regards to the caption on that last photo, here's a photo of downtown Alta in the 1870s: http://www.altahistory.org/databaseshowitem.aspx?id=1083. That was taken where the ski area's Transfer Tow exists today.)
 
admin":3g4z8zc0 said:
This year will most certainly set a record for skier days in Utah, if this anecdotal evidence is any indication.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from other regions besides Utah too. I expect a U.S. skier visit record when the Kottke Report comes out in May. There are no bad regions this year.
 
Looks like an incredible weekend. Snowing currently and forecast to be snowy/cold all week up at Discovery for my arrival on Wednesday evening.

Currently reading about 400 people who ducked a rope at Snowbird and got caught at the bottom of Mineral Basin. Incredible if true!
 
Tony Crocker":3j932ity said:
admin":3j932ity said:
This year will most certainly set a record for skier days in Utah, if this anecdotal evidence is any indication.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from other regions besides Utah too. I expect a U.S. skier visit record when the Kottke Report comes out in May. There are no bad regions this year.

That's what I don't understand. From my observations in other years, when we tend to be busy is when other regions in the West aren't doing so well, but that's not the case this winter, which has been far busier than I've ever seen. I just don't get it.
 
Tony Crocker":1hwitpm8 said:
admin":1hwitpm8 said:
This year will most certainly set a record for skier days in Utah, if this anecdotal evidence is any indication.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from other regions besides Utah too. I expect a U.S. skier visit record when the Kottke Report comes out in May. There are no bad regions this year.

Not sure what the skier numbers will look like in the Northeast this year, but I would characterize the winter so far as being mixed, at best. Weather-wise, it's been very up and down, with periods of cold weather and snow and then periods of warm weather and rain (extending all the way up into Eastern Canada). Last week, we had two consecutive days with temps in the low 70's and all the natural snow is long gone. Luckily, for most NE ski areas, the X-Mas week was OK and MLK and the Presidents' long weekend were also decent. I'm guessing it won't be a stellar season for most ski areas in the East.
 
Admin":19mxxrlj said:
That's what I don't understand. From my observations in other years, when we tend to be busy is when other regions in the West aren't doing so well, but that's not the case this winter, which has been far busier than I've ever seen. I just don't get it.

Esp with Vail in town for a couple years now maybe, just maybe, Utah is now 'on the map' ? Plus SLC metro continues to grow rapidly too.
 
I'm not discounting the Vail Resorts/Epic Pass theory. There's bound to be some spillover.
 
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