Alta, UT 1/6/2008

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Day 21: The Storm, Phase II

After yesterday's graupel fest today's new snow was definitely lighter, yet still not exactly fluff. No matter, it skied very, very well once again.

There were six of us today -- Skidog, Bob Dangerous, John Babyak visiting from Connecticut, Tele Jon, Tirolerpeter and yours truly -- and with visibility again next to nil we lapped Wildcat exclusively again today.

Snow was nuking at 3 inches per hour or better, so we got free refills on each run. First tracks in The Ho (Ho, ho, ho! \:D/ ), numerous runs just east of The Ho, and one Ho all the way down the boundary ropeline to the Bypass Road capped the morning with the deepest, most untracked run of the day. It was clear no one skied those lines yesterday, either. When the Alta Bypass Shuttle never showed, all it took was a thumb to hitch a ride in the back of a pickup back to Wildcat past a UTA bus that had slid off the road, even with chains, and hopelessly buried itself.

At lunch we learned that the road would close at 1 pm, and hopefully reopen at 3 as long as no slides ran too big. Lacking a sleeping bag in the truck, and not anxious to spend a cold night on the floor of Goldminer's Daughter most of us high-tailed it out of there for one positively miserable and long drive down the canyon.

Bases are getting deep now. Here's today's video, and note at times both the sound of the occasional graupel mixing in pinging off the camera, and also the way the stuff at times sluffed down the hill:

<embed src="http://www.skimovies.com/videoplayer/mediaplayer.swf" width="640" height="500" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" flashvars="&displayheight=480&file=http://www.skimovies.com/flv/Alta_2008-01-06.FLV&height=500&image=http://www.skimovies.com/flv/Alta_2008-01-06_thumb.jpg&width=640">
 
I'd like to place my order for Jan 31 & Feb 1 please...

Theory is: short road trip for me to Canyons fri, LCC or BCC on Sat that weekend with cousins and other more distant family (a 'guys trip'). I think there are like 8 of us (most only average skiers so we usually split into groups, meet for lunch, etc...). So not sure if the logistics will be to conducive to meeting up, but I'll send you a PM sometime before then.
 
Skiing looks fast for that much powder. Is that the graupel subsurface?

Nonetheless we have a large group at the Iron Blosam that would like to place an order for second week of March.
 
Tony Crocker":292zspg0 said:
Skiing looks fast for that much powder. Is that the graupel subsurface?
Click to expand...

We weren't hitting yesterday's graupel subsurface, too much snow since then for that. However, there was a bit of graupel mixed in today and no matter what fell it was very, very dense. It therefore skied fast until you inexplicably fell deeper into it, which was like someone tossing a drag chute out back.

Besides, we rip. 8)

:lol:
 
Susan thanks you for the video record of our day skiing Wildcat. Since she doesn't ski she has never actually seen me on the slopes. BTW, did you really have to include that last little bit of my "Extreme Tree Skiing" adventure? :-)
 
tirolerpeter":286245am said:
BTW, did you really have to include that last little bit of my "Extreme Tree Skiing" adventure? :-)
Click to expand...

Mais oui, monsieur! Between you and John I was getting a bit uncomfortable about the intimacy you guys share with trees. ;-)

I actually missed filming the best part of that escapade, too. Bob had ventured onto the rib separating one chute from the next, and responded with a firm "no!" when I inquired how the next one looked. I skied down, stopped and looked up only to see Peter there. All I could mutter was, "What the F is he doing there?" I was too enthralled by the performance to remember to pull out my camera as Peter stodd precariously balanced on that horizontal tree trunk.Bob belayed Peter with a ski pole down to where he is at the end of that film.
 
Matt, Jon, Bob, Peter, Sam and Marc--you're a great crew!! Thanks for including me in today's powder adventure. That last run we did together down The Ho all the way to the bypass road was one I will never forget. Next time, I promise to keep to the intended line through the woods...not into the wood!
 
ctmoneymgr":q6u7ra3m said:
Matt, Jon, Bob, Peter, Sam and Marc--you're a great crew!! Thanks for including me in today's powder adventure. That last run we did together down The Ho all the way to the bypass road was one I will never forget. Next time, I promise to keep to the intended line through the woods...not into the wood!
Click to expand...

"Over the woods" works too! :wink:
 
I notice that per the 4:30 p.m. report base depths are now 93" -- we're nearing that magical 100-inch mark. The day's total was another 14".
 
well, I suspect there will be over 100" of base when I get there on Feb 1

and it probably won't snow at all while I'm out there either

so for the rest of you, best not go to while I'm there 8)
 
well, i'm glad to be going the 21-30th then. although i'm not expecting too much except for high pressure, sun, stability and mucho off piste, i'd rather have zero vis, 2 in per hour solitude turns, either way it'll be good unless it starts puking here then i might just flush the 250 dollar plane ticket down the toilet.
last winter i took 6 weeks off of work to ski and never left the east cuz i hit 13 feet of storms between west virginia and maine between jan 19th and march 5th. i'd had every intention to head west and cash was not an issue, it just wasn't worth goin.
roll the dice
sunapee tomorrow for slush
rained on my b-day at stowe last year also, consitent at least, damn it's hot out
 
and to top it off, it will likely puke here in the east the day I'm leaving.

that's the problem with planning a vacation, but we don't always have the luxury of going whenever we need to.

Though I am thinking that maybe next year I will take a "play it by ear" approach...only problem with that is, can't use frequent flier miles and can't find an affordable flight after Xmas....unless it is April.
 
Garry Klassen was in Jackson Hole skiing boilerplate when it dumped 7 feet at Mt. Baldy in February 2001. $&!# happens.
 
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