NeedhamSkier
New member
Skied a half-day at Alta before heading to the airport. No snow in downtown SLC overnight, so I wasn’t optimistic as I headed up the valley, but Alta delivered with about 6-8 inches on the ground when I arrived and probably another 3 or 4 before I left at 1.30.
All looked smooth and I was hoping for another great powder day, but there were some good-sized bumps under the snow pretty much everywhere, which produced slightly frustrating conditions (for me at least). Even where there weren’t bumps, you were still hitting bottom most of the time, although that improved as more snow fell during the day. The light was also a little flat. So, while I was skiing Alta in fresh powder, it wasn’t the final all-star day I was hoping for. After an initial run down something off the High T, I then had one good run in Greeley Bowl. I should perhaps have gone back for seconds, but it seemed like a long way round to lap it. So instead I headed over to Supreme and even found bumps on Catherine’s, which surprised me a little – didn’t realize it got so much traffic over there.
Did a few laps on Supreme, then headed to Sugarloaf, where Glory Hole was open, but with more bumps. But once through, the bottom part of East Greeley (I think) was fun, steeper, with less powder on it, just soft snow.
Then headed back to Collins (the return was so cold and windy) and figured I would do a run on Wildcat, just so stay close to the car, as I needed to leave soon.
That produced easily the best run of the day. The gate under the lift was open (Bear Paw?) with very few tracks. The snow was very light and probably boot-deep with the new snow from the day and finally with no bumps underneath, at least on the first part. Up until that run, I was ready to head home, but that left me wanting more. So I went up Collins for one final run, which was just okay, then headed to the airport. At that point the day went downhill in a different way – my flight home through Chicago was canceled because of snow, which eventually left me with an extra night in Dallas on my way home.
Even so, overall this was a great trip. 2 bluebird days with 18+” of new powder, crowd-dodging at Snowbasin, an introduction to Powder Mtn and one snowy day at Alta – what’s to complain about, particularly in an indifferent season. Powder-itch successfully scratched for a little longer.
All looked smooth and I was hoping for another great powder day, but there were some good-sized bumps under the snow pretty much everywhere, which produced slightly frustrating conditions (for me at least). Even where there weren’t bumps, you were still hitting bottom most of the time, although that improved as more snow fell during the day. The light was also a little flat. So, while I was skiing Alta in fresh powder, it wasn’t the final all-star day I was hoping for. After an initial run down something off the High T, I then had one good run in Greeley Bowl. I should perhaps have gone back for seconds, but it seemed like a long way round to lap it. So instead I headed over to Supreme and even found bumps on Catherine’s, which surprised me a little – didn’t realize it got so much traffic over there.
Did a few laps on Supreme, then headed to Sugarloaf, where Glory Hole was open, but with more bumps. But once through, the bottom part of East Greeley (I think) was fun, steeper, with less powder on it, just soft snow.
Then headed back to Collins (the return was so cold and windy) and figured I would do a run on Wildcat, just so stay close to the car, as I needed to leave soon.
Even so, overall this was a great trip. 2 bluebird days with 18+” of new powder, crowd-dodging at Snowbasin, an introduction to Powder Mtn and one snowy day at Alta – what’s to complain about, particularly in an indifferent season. Powder-itch successfully scratched for a little longer.