Day 100: The big fat century mark, baby!
Honestly, this means more to me than a birthday. It's my first time ever hitting 100 ski days in a season, and quite possibly the last until I'm 65. I met up with Bobby Danger and Skidog at 8:00, although Bobby was one tram ahead of the rest of us. Turns out that Marc_C, Dale, Pat and Amy were there, too, but I never saw them. Beautiful blue skies, temperatures in the 50s, no wind and a hot sun. Although a bunch of snow was lost during the week there's more snow than I've ever seen at Snowbird at the end of June.
All of Peruvian Gulch and everything in Gad Valley below Little Cloud is now designated as backcountry. Your season pass or lift ticket now get you one upload on the Tram. If you want another Tram lap it'll cost you $10 or a receipt showing $10 or more purchased in a Snowbird food service facility. No biggie, the best skiing is up high right now anyway.
And surprisingly there was a refreeze overnight despite the warm weather. It'll hit 88ºF in Salt Lake City today and yesterday's high was 87.3ºF at my house -- trust me, I know because my swamp cooler isn't working and the tech can't come before Tuesday. There's still a lot of thermal mass to that snowpack and with clear, dry air overnight that heat just radiates into the atmosphere, allowing it to freeze overnight.
Our first run together was down Chamonix 1, which was smooth and softened to perfection.
We mixed things up a bit, alternating between riding MBE to ski Toad Hill, the Bookends and Mineral Chutes (the latter easily being the best turns of the day, skied up but not bumped up) and riding Little Cloud once the front side softened a bit more.
Here's that same spot on July 4th in 2005:
At the end of Road to Provo we bumped into friend Craig Gordon of the Utah Avalanche Center, who really made my 100 days feel insignificant.
Craig has missed 6 days of skiing since October 29, 2010. :shock: I'll save you the counting: that's 240 days thus far this season alone. In fact, Craig hasn't missed a month of skiing in 21 years. :shock: :shock:
For our last run together we hiked to the High Baldy Traverse and headed out to the top of Armpit for our bottle of champagne. No one else had been out there yet today and the traverse has completely disappeared, as has the bootpack. This was, however, the perfect spot for the occasion, right on the ridgeline separating Snowbird and Alta with views into both.
We skied Armpit, again softened to perfection before traversing back to the ridgeline to return to Snowbird via a full-length Keyhole from the Doorknob gate, or at least where the Doorknob gate sits when it's actually there. Unbelievable that we could ski Keyhole proper on the last week of June!
Bobby headed down to the Plaza for a bite to eat before heading back up, while Skidog and I called it a day at 11 as the snow was getting very soft. As I unbuckled my boots, however, I found the snow against the green leaves to be a beautiful juxtaposition.
On my way down canyon I stopped for a bit to enjoy too the raging waters of Little Cottonwood Creek, now running full-tilt with the runoff.
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/25599386[/vimeo]
If you're looking for action photos from today, Ansel Adams had his camera again today and took a few. I'm sure that one or two will likely end up added to this thread tonight.
Looks like my season will likely end at 101 days as I'm unlikely to get up there again before next Monday, July 4th. There is, however, a rumor that Snowbird may extend again until July 24th, which is a Utah state holiday known as Pioneer Day. If they do this will be their longest ski season ever.
Honestly, this means more to me than a birthday. It's my first time ever hitting 100 ski days in a season, and quite possibly the last until I'm 65. I met up with Bobby Danger and Skidog at 8:00, although Bobby was one tram ahead of the rest of us. Turns out that Marc_C, Dale, Pat and Amy were there, too, but I never saw them. Beautiful blue skies, temperatures in the 50s, no wind and a hot sun. Although a bunch of snow was lost during the week there's more snow than I've ever seen at Snowbird at the end of June.
All of Peruvian Gulch and everything in Gad Valley below Little Cloud is now designated as backcountry. Your season pass or lift ticket now get you one upload on the Tram. If you want another Tram lap it'll cost you $10 or a receipt showing $10 or more purchased in a Snowbird food service facility. No biggie, the best skiing is up high right now anyway.
And surprisingly there was a refreeze overnight despite the warm weather. It'll hit 88ºF in Salt Lake City today and yesterday's high was 87.3ºF at my house -- trust me, I know because my swamp cooler isn't working and the tech can't come before Tuesday. There's still a lot of thermal mass to that snowpack and with clear, dry air overnight that heat just radiates into the atmosphere, allowing it to freeze overnight.
Our first run together was down Chamonix 1, which was smooth and softened to perfection.
We mixed things up a bit, alternating between riding MBE to ski Toad Hill, the Bookends and Mineral Chutes (the latter easily being the best turns of the day, skied up but not bumped up) and riding Little Cloud once the front side softened a bit more.
Here's that same spot on July 4th in 2005:
At the end of Road to Provo we bumped into friend Craig Gordon of the Utah Avalanche Center, who really made my 100 days feel insignificant.
Craig has missed 6 days of skiing since October 29, 2010. :shock: I'll save you the counting: that's 240 days thus far this season alone. In fact, Craig hasn't missed a month of skiing in 21 years. :shock: :shock:
For our last run together we hiked to the High Baldy Traverse and headed out to the top of Armpit for our bottle of champagne. No one else had been out there yet today and the traverse has completely disappeared, as has the bootpack. This was, however, the perfect spot for the occasion, right on the ridgeline separating Snowbird and Alta with views into both.
We skied Armpit, again softened to perfection before traversing back to the ridgeline to return to Snowbird via a full-length Keyhole from the Doorknob gate, or at least where the Doorknob gate sits when it's actually there. Unbelievable that we could ski Keyhole proper on the last week of June!
Bobby headed down to the Plaza for a bite to eat before heading back up, while Skidog and I called it a day at 11 as the snow was getting very soft. As I unbuckled my boots, however, I found the snow against the green leaves to be a beautiful juxtaposition.
On my way down canyon I stopped for a bit to enjoy too the raging waters of Little Cottonwood Creek, now running full-tilt with the runoff.
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/25599386[/vimeo]
If you're looking for action photos from today, Ansel Adams had his camera again today and took a few. I'm sure that one or two will likely end up added to this thread tonight.
Looks like my season will likely end at 101 days as I'm unlikely to get up there again before next Monday, July 4th. There is, however, a rumor that Snowbird may extend again until July 24th, which is a Utah state holiday known as Pioneer Day. If they do this will be their longest ski season ever.
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