Day 68: Harvesting the corn.
It's Alta's final weekend this season, and we couldn't ask for better weather: cloudless, deep blue skies and temperatures in the 50s, which under the late April sun feels more like the 80s. For a time today I was wearing only a T-shirt (OK, I had pants on, too :wink: )
I think that there were maybe 25 customers there at opening.
We headed straight for Backside, which was already softening nicely in the morning sun. We lapped it repeatedly.
Tiring of Backside after repeated trips we decided to explore further, and hit Cecret Saddle in what is now designated backcountry terrain surrounding the closed Sugarloaf lift. Looking up we realized that we had to ski Devil's Castle in its entirety.
I headed back to my truck and grabbed my backcountry gear, and once back atop Collins we started doing a reverse traverse on the EBT, the others hiking and yours truly on skins.
Once up to the Castle Traverse I stripped my skins and we all headed out toward The Wall.
We skied Boulder Basin in the Castle, which held shockingly dry, winter-like snow considering the weather conditions all this week.
We had lunch at 1 p.m. at Watson's just as West Rustler was coming into its own, softening on west-facing aspects. I split around 2 p.m. to prepare for tomorrow's closing party and tailgate BBQ.
It's Alta's final weekend this season, and we couldn't ask for better weather: cloudless, deep blue skies and temperatures in the 50s, which under the late April sun feels more like the 80s. For a time today I was wearing only a T-shirt (OK, I had pants on, too :wink: )
I think that there were maybe 25 customers there at opening.
We headed straight for Backside, which was already softening nicely in the morning sun. We lapped it repeatedly.
Tiring of Backside after repeated trips we decided to explore further, and hit Cecret Saddle in what is now designated backcountry terrain surrounding the closed Sugarloaf lift. Looking up we realized that we had to ski Devil's Castle in its entirety.
I headed back to my truck and grabbed my backcountry gear, and once back atop Collins we started doing a reverse traverse on the EBT, the others hiking and yours truly on skins.
Once up to the Castle Traverse I stripped my skins and we all headed out toward The Wall.
We skied Boulder Basin in the Castle, which held shockingly dry, winter-like snow considering the weather conditions all this week.
We had lunch at 1 p.m. at Watson's just as West Rustler was coming into its own, softening on west-facing aspects. I split around 2 p.m. to prepare for tomorrow's closing party and tailgate BBQ.