Day 45:
Today turned out to be a pleasant surprise all the way around: good company, good snow, and no one there.
It sure started off poorly, though. I tore the house apart looking for the truck keys. I called my wife's cell phone to find out where she put them -- no answer. She called back -- she had them in her purse and took them with her to work. ](*,) "It's not my fault!" she pleaded. Oh, really? Did the dogs conspire to drop them in her purse??
Dale fortunately called from the McDonald's right down the street, so I asked him to swing by to pick up The Kid and me. Thank God. He never does that, but something made him do it today.
We bumped into Acidchrist and Amy in the base lodge, who were seemingly leading half of the Labrador Mountain (NY) ski patrol and ski school around. We hooked up with their gang for the day.
Alta was reporting 4-6" new at 5 am, but it was more like 8 inches by the time we got going. 8 inches of heavy, windblown snow, probably 10% which a patroller we rode the lift with described as "having body." Fred's Trees was decent, but we took the tower 10 traverse over to West Rustler and found incredibly inconsistent snow. It was apparent from the overnight southeasterly winds that we'd be better off on the east sides of the ridges, but Backside was closed (and would be all day), along with Ballroom, Baldy Shoulder, and of course Devil's Castle.
Dale took off down canyon to pick up his new Dalbello boots and Dynastar 8800s at the Lift House. We took one more run on West Rustler, on a slightly better Stonecrusher before heading over to Wildcat in search of better snow.
And we found it. Westward Ho was divine, and the wet base from yesterday was wonderfully spongy underneath the new snow. There seemed to be only 2 other tracks out there at that point. We next tried Wildcat Bowl and the knob behind the old Watson Shelter site, and found perfect untracked snow that more than made up for the crummy visibility in the heavy snowfall.
It snowed intensely all day, occasionally with more graupel than snow, and just kept getting better. Tracks were filling in. We regrouped with Dale and headed up Collins and out to North Rustler, where on the lower-angle turns through the trees near the bottom Acidchrist declared it his best line of the year. We headed back up Collins and down Cabin Hill en route to Supreme. Catherine's delivered true untracked, and we took another run out there by traversing above the Spiny Chutes and crossing the ropeline. Nice of the patrol to put an "Open" sign on the ropeline, even though there's no proper gate. Even No. 9 trees were terrific, and we linked tree islands below all the way to White Squaw Chutes via their lower gate.
Our last run was through Eagle's Nest, which of course required some traveling to get to, but it was still terrific. Others kept skiing, but Dale, The Kid and I called it a day at 2:45 to save some energy for tomorrow. With another 8-10 of lighter, dryer snow expected to fall behind the cold front, tomorrow should be nearly epic, especially because Backside, Ballroom, Baldy Shoulder and Devil's Castle never opened today.
No pictures today, sorry -- in my haste to get out of the house I forgot my camera battery in the charger in the kitchen.
Today turned out to be a pleasant surprise all the way around: good company, good snow, and no one there.
It sure started off poorly, though. I tore the house apart looking for the truck keys. I called my wife's cell phone to find out where she put them -- no answer. She called back -- she had them in her purse and took them with her to work. ](*,) "It's not my fault!" she pleaded. Oh, really? Did the dogs conspire to drop them in her purse??
Dale fortunately called from the McDonald's right down the street, so I asked him to swing by to pick up The Kid and me. Thank God. He never does that, but something made him do it today.
We bumped into Acidchrist and Amy in the base lodge, who were seemingly leading half of the Labrador Mountain (NY) ski patrol and ski school around. We hooked up with their gang for the day.
Alta was reporting 4-6" new at 5 am, but it was more like 8 inches by the time we got going. 8 inches of heavy, windblown snow, probably 10% which a patroller we rode the lift with described as "having body." Fred's Trees was decent, but we took the tower 10 traverse over to West Rustler and found incredibly inconsistent snow. It was apparent from the overnight southeasterly winds that we'd be better off on the east sides of the ridges, but Backside was closed (and would be all day), along with Ballroom, Baldy Shoulder, and of course Devil's Castle.
Dale took off down canyon to pick up his new Dalbello boots and Dynastar 8800s at the Lift House. We took one more run on West Rustler, on a slightly better Stonecrusher before heading over to Wildcat in search of better snow.
And we found it. Westward Ho was divine, and the wet base from yesterday was wonderfully spongy underneath the new snow. There seemed to be only 2 other tracks out there at that point. We next tried Wildcat Bowl and the knob behind the old Watson Shelter site, and found perfect untracked snow that more than made up for the crummy visibility in the heavy snowfall.
It snowed intensely all day, occasionally with more graupel than snow, and just kept getting better. Tracks were filling in. We regrouped with Dale and headed up Collins and out to North Rustler, where on the lower-angle turns through the trees near the bottom Acidchrist declared it his best line of the year. We headed back up Collins and down Cabin Hill en route to Supreme. Catherine's delivered true untracked, and we took another run out there by traversing above the Spiny Chutes and crossing the ropeline. Nice of the patrol to put an "Open" sign on the ropeline, even though there's no proper gate. Even No. 9 trees were terrific, and we linked tree islands below all the way to White Squaw Chutes via their lower gate.
Our last run was through Eagle's Nest, which of course required some traveling to get to, but it was still terrific. Others kept skiing, but Dale, The Kid and I called it a day at 2:45 to save some energy for tomorrow. With another 8-10 of lighter, dryer snow expected to fall behind the cold front, tomorrow should be nearly epic, especially because Backside, Ballroom, Baldy Shoulder and Devil's Castle never opened today.
No pictures today, sorry -- in my haste to get out of the house I forgot my camera battery in the charger in the kitchen.