Day 27: Finally off the groomers.
I really had the best of intentions today. I felt like a change of scenery, and also had yet to see the new bubble chair and realigned gondi at Canyons Resort. So I figured I'd break in my season pass there today. But when I got onto I-215 and prepared to transition to I-80 up Parley's Canyon I saw traffic backed out of the canyon and down toward Sugar House, all at an absolute dead stop. Turns out they had 4x4/chain restrictions for all traffic on I-80 in Parley's, something I've only seen before for semis, and they had a chain checkpoint set up at the chain-up area a short ways inside the mouth of the canyon. Beyond that, reports on the radio indicated that traffic was barely inching up toward Parley's Summit. Surmising that it would take a good 90 minutes or more to get to Park City, I bagged my plans and turned around.
In fact, I got off the exit to my house and sat at the light waiting to turn left into my neighborhood. I was tired, I slept little last night and I figured that tomorrow will be the big day. But then something came over me, I turned right from the left turn lane, made a U-turn on 33rd and got back on the highway toward Alta.
And boy, am I glad I did! When I checked the morning report it had begun snowing around 4-5 a.m. and was snowing at an inch an hour. During the day it had to be snowing two to three inches an hour, in a medium density ahead of the cold front that was absolutely perfect -- enough to bury the crunchy base, but light enough to float through.
The mountain remains quiet for Christmas Week. I rode on a few tourist chairs before Dale called upon his arrival, and we hooked up and headed for Supreme. I spent much of the morning getting familiar with ways through the cliff band between the Supreme liftline and White Squaw. A couple of times I cliffed myself out (and more than once on the same cliff
), but I also got to ski a few hairball lines in there that I've never skied before. That part of the mountain is a true playground but I've never truly taken the time to familiarize myself with the less than obvious ways through there. My efforts were rewarded with thigh-deep untracked.
I got out of there around 1:30 to catch up on sleep and beat the 2:30 p.m. road closure. It reopened at 5 p.m., but they're saying that they may close it again tonight and will definitely close it at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow until an estimated 9 a.m. I'm torn over what to do tomorrow -- maybe I'll try to beat the 7:30 closure if it doesn't close overnight. They're saying 3 feet or more by the time this system is done Friday morning. Snow levels have now reached the valley floor, and heading out to a 5:30 p.m. appointment in Cottonwood Heights was a crapshow on the roads this evening. A short while ago I looked out the living room window and could see a wall of headlights stopped on the transition from I-80 eastbound to I-215 southbound, stretching back as far as the eye could see. And I've got to make an airport pickup run at 11:15 p.m. tonight. #-o
I really had the best of intentions today. I felt like a change of scenery, and also had yet to see the new bubble chair and realigned gondi at Canyons Resort. So I figured I'd break in my season pass there today. But when I got onto I-215 and prepared to transition to I-80 up Parley's Canyon I saw traffic backed out of the canyon and down toward Sugar House, all at an absolute dead stop. Turns out they had 4x4/chain restrictions for all traffic on I-80 in Parley's, something I've only seen before for semis, and they had a chain checkpoint set up at the chain-up area a short ways inside the mouth of the canyon. Beyond that, reports on the radio indicated that traffic was barely inching up toward Parley's Summit. Surmising that it would take a good 90 minutes or more to get to Park City, I bagged my plans and turned around.
In fact, I got off the exit to my house and sat at the light waiting to turn left into my neighborhood. I was tired, I slept little last night and I figured that tomorrow will be the big day. But then something came over me, I turned right from the left turn lane, made a U-turn on 33rd and got back on the highway toward Alta.
And boy, am I glad I did! When I checked the morning report it had begun snowing around 4-5 a.m. and was snowing at an inch an hour. During the day it had to be snowing two to three inches an hour, in a medium density ahead of the cold front that was absolutely perfect -- enough to bury the crunchy base, but light enough to float through.
The mountain remains quiet for Christmas Week. I rode on a few tourist chairs before Dale called upon his arrival, and we hooked up and headed for Supreme. I spent much of the morning getting familiar with ways through the cliff band between the Supreme liftline and White Squaw. A couple of times I cliffed myself out (and more than once on the same cliff
), but I also got to ski a few hairball lines in there that I've never skied before. That part of the mountain is a true playground but I've never truly taken the time to familiarize myself with the less than obvious ways through there. My efforts were rewarded with thigh-deep untracked.I got out of there around 1:30 to catch up on sleep and beat the 2:30 p.m. road closure. It reopened at 5 p.m., but they're saying that they may close it again tonight and will definitely close it at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow until an estimated 9 a.m. I'm torn over what to do tomorrow -- maybe I'll try to beat the 7:30 closure if it doesn't close overnight. They're saying 3 feet or more by the time this system is done Friday morning. Snow levels have now reached the valley floor, and heading out to a 5:30 p.m. appointment in Cottonwood Heights was a crapshow on the roads this evening. A short while ago I looked out the living room window and could see a wall of headlights stopped on the transition from I-80 eastbound to I-215 southbound, stretching back as far as the eye could see. And I've got to make an airport pickup run at 11:15 p.m. tonight. #-o
