jkamien":2k5lc5a6 said:
I've sent my pics of the day to Admin. I'll let him post them here. His run shown in the pics was quite nicely done, indeed. It was a hairy little line...
Not so nicely done, but thanks for the lies. Your expert photography makes me look better than I was. But I digress...
Day 34:
Jonathan wanted to get out at first bell. Ordinarily, after a week of sunny and dry weather I'd wait until 10:30 or 11 for things to soften up, but when you've got a visitor in tow they want to ski from dawn to dusk. :roll:
So we were on Collins by 9:20 or so. (OK, OK...I was late.) It was still warm like yesterday, but high clouds were already streaming in ahead of tomorrow's storm, and the southerly winds were kicking up on the ridgelines as well. Jonathan sprung for an AltaBird combined ticket today, so we beelined a quick sunny cruiser down Razorback and Roller Coaster to board the Sugarloaf chair, then headed through the Sugar Shack into Snowbird's Mineral Basin...but only after getting positively sandblasted by blowing snow on the ridgeline at Sugarloaf Pass. We spent as little time on the pass as possible, regrouping halfway down the Basin where we were out of the wind again.
Up the Mineral Basin Express, we headed out the Powder Paradise traverse all the way to the Bookends cliffs. I haven't been out that far this year, and it's a positively high and wild place. We set up at a nasty little 45- to 50-degree chute threading the cliffs, no more than about 15 feet wide and far less at the crux, where it doglegged slightly to the left. I kicked off some snow intentionally to see where the fall line would carry me if I blew a turn and slid -- oops, straight at the dogleg and right over a 20-footer. :shock: Gotta make sure I keep the p-tex side down. Jonathan set up for some photos, advising that he'd take a wider line to skier's right after the photo session.
I skied it tentatively, but it got the blood going. I rejoined Marc_C on the apron, and turned around to watch Jonathan thread the same line that I had. Damn! I hadn't had time to get the camera out to return the favor, but Marc_C was snapping photos. We really didn't have the best photo angle, anyway.
We boarded Mineral Basin Express again to the summit of Hidden Peak, where we watched crosswinds wreak havoc with the docking tram cabin. Marc_C was still feeling under the weather, so he headed for Mid-Cirque while Jonathan and I struck out to scout either Great Scott or Jaws. Both had nasty hard cornice entrances onto a rock-strewn first turn, so instead we threaded the chocolate chips down to the Ho Chi Minh trail, which was positively heinous as the prevailing southwesterlies had scoured it down to rock-hard glaciated whoop-de-doos. We popped out onto the Mid-Cirque ridgeline just in time to see Marc_C making his run about 5 or 6 turns below us. Jonathan dropped the cornice with abandon, rejoining Marc_C, and I followed far more tentatively than he had entered.
From there my legs needed a break, so we cruised Chip's and other groomers to return to the Tram Plaza...just in time to witness a mass exodus of skiers across the footbridge as the tram had just closed due to the crosswinds. We skated down to Gadzoom, endured a sizeable liftline via the single's line, and boarded Little Cloud back into the wind zone...just in time to see a tram that had resumed operation dock a cabin at the summit. #-o Time to head back to Alta. We dropped back into Mineral Basin, skiing Powder Paradise to access the Baldy Express chair back to Sugarloaf Pass.
Hunger pangs were kicking in by now, so we decided to try something for lunch that I'd heretofore not previously tried: the sit-down dining experience of Collins Grill, upstairs in Watson Shelter. Jonathan graciously picked up the tab (thanks again, bud!) and I had a delightful sea bass in a lemon and caper compote on basmati rice, with a very unique yet full-bodied chardonnay. Prices were not unreasonable, either, although I thought that the wine was on the high side. I highly recommend sampling Collins Grill on a day when chewing up powder isn't a priority, but be sure to make a reservation in the morning -- we didn't have one, and we were fortunate that they were able to squeeze us in.
Coming out of Watson Shelter, I spotted a skier on the deck wearing a helmet with a strip of green plaid wool fabric affixed to the back. For those of you familiar with the SkiVT-L listserv, you know what that means. I approached the wearer and introduced myself to list member Dylan G, who was skiing with a bunch of hardcores who had just decended Main Chute on Baldy. It must've been horrendously windy at the summit, but Dylan reported fine snow in the chute itself. Dylan, great to meet you!
We skied back to the Wildcat base to get the blood flowing again and headed out the Backside gate after riding Collins, finding delightful chalk right in the main line. We caught the Sugarloaf catch-line and rode that chair. At the top, I was really starting to feel the ache, and swore off anything but groomers for the rest of the day, a committment that lasted, oh...about 3 minutes, when all three of us headed out the Cecret Saddle gate. Jonathan wanted some action photos as souvenirs, and I obliged -- he skied the line so aggressively that he somehow made chalk look like a powder day!
Up Supreme, and I swore that I was keeping my groomer promise this time. I skied Sleepy Hollow and Big Dipper while Jonathan and Marc_C played in the trees and White Squaw Chutes. That was enough, however, to still do me in, and we parted company at the base of Supreme. Marc_C and I simply skied down to the Transfer Tow to head home.
The pattern is setting up for another change, with a significant storm forecast to move in Tuesday and then another one every two to three days for the foreseeable future.
