jkamien
Member
I arrived here at Alta at about noon after catching the 8AM departure from LAX. Since I left Alta last February 28, it has snowed here almost every day. Of course, it stopped snowing a day or two ago to coincide with my arrival. Heaven forbid it should snow WHILE I'm at a ski area! I am the Anti-snow God. If I am lucky, it may snow Saturday night before I leave on Sunday. It always seems to snow on the day I have to leave from a ski trip.
After dropping off my poor, abused Stokli Stormriders (see Mt. Baldy report of 3-18-06)
at the Deep Powder House ski shop for repair and renting a pair of Head Monster M88's for the afternoon, I hightailed it up Collins to catch a "Diamond Challenge" workshop with the Ski School for the afternoon. I didn't want to ski alone and this seemed like a good way to get a guided tour.
I met up with Andy, the instructor, and two High School kids from Sunday River in Maine. Off we went. After a shake down cruise which included a little chute called Mine Shaft on the way to the base, Andy told us we passed the test. He later radioed back to the Ski School desk that he had three "9 plusses" and wouldn't be adding anyone to the group. I asked him what the scale was and he said 1-9. That made me feel pretty good. I also discovered that I am three times Mike and Alex's age. I am getting to be an old geezer...
At any rate, the weather was warm and the skies were bluebird. Andy took us to varying north facing shots that I'm sure I would not have found on my own. The highlight was, by far, Eddy's High Nowhere. The highest gate off the high traverse leads to a boot ladder which ends in a vertigo-inducing knife edge knoll. It truly felt like the top of the world up there.
As the pictures at show, I developed my own Kodachrome Courage, gulped, and took a hairy little entrance. Gawd I love stuff like that! Since it takes so much effort to get up there, and has a nice northern exposure, the snow was really fine on that slope. What a great experience!!!
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing around Rustler and Greeley. All in all, a fine afternoon.
See next topic for more pics....
After dropping off my poor, abused Stokli Stormriders (see Mt. Baldy report of 3-18-06)
at the Deep Powder House ski shop for repair and renting a pair of Head Monster M88's for the afternoon, I hightailed it up Collins to catch a "Diamond Challenge" workshop with the Ski School for the afternoon. I didn't want to ski alone and this seemed like a good way to get a guided tour.
I met up with Andy, the instructor, and two High School kids from Sunday River in Maine. Off we went. After a shake down cruise which included a little chute called Mine Shaft on the way to the base, Andy told us we passed the test. He later radioed back to the Ski School desk that he had three "9 plusses" and wouldn't be adding anyone to the group. I asked him what the scale was and he said 1-9. That made me feel pretty good. I also discovered that I am three times Mike and Alex's age. I am getting to be an old geezer...
At any rate, the weather was warm and the skies were bluebird. Andy took us to varying north facing shots that I'm sure I would not have found on my own. The highlight was, by far, Eddy's High Nowhere. The highest gate off the high traverse leads to a boot ladder which ends in a vertigo-inducing knife edge knoll. It truly felt like the top of the world up there.
As the pictures at show, I developed my own Kodachrome Courage, gulped, and took a hairy little entrance. Gawd I love stuff like that! Since it takes so much effort to get up there, and has a nice northern exposure, the snow was really fine on that slope. What a great experience!!!
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing around Rustler and Greeley. All in all, a fine afternoon.
See next topic for more pics....
