Days 79-80: Target achieved.
I had planned to ski Saturday and Monday over the Memorial Day weekend, but the sound of rain splattering against my bedroom window on Saturday morning prompted me to kill the alarm and roll back over. Despite today's modern technical fabrics I still can't stand that "drowned rat" feeling that comes with skiing in the rain. Wet snow was mixing in on the upper half of the mountain, but it was definitely liquid precipitation on the lower half.
So I found myself skiing on Sunday and Monday instead in order to hit my self-imposed target of 80 days this season. On Sunday, however, I was feeling lazy and didn't get up there until 10 a.m., which was a huge mistake as the snow was already well on its way toward transitioning to mush as temperatures in the Salt Lake Valley were hitting the mid-80s under a blistering sun. I had fun, but I found myself wishing that I'd been there earlier.
With nearly identical weather on Monday I didn't make that same mistake twice, and I was there with Bobby Danger and AmyZ among the very few who loaded Peruvian Express at the 8 a.m. opening. The Tram was back down for maintenance, so we had Peruvian along with Mineral Basin Express and Little Cloud Express to ride.
We emerged from the tunnel to find Mineral Basin with nearly perfectly ripe corn.
By 10 a.m. Mineral had gone sticky, Peruvian Gulch was already in prime form and the closing day crowds were seriously filling in, so after we gathered in the Forklift for breakfast I split. By that point both the parking at Entry 2 and along the Bypass Road were full, and they were spilling down toward Entry 1. Bobby and Amy stuck it out until noon when the crowds got to be too much for them, too.
After Monday Snowbird has wrapped up for the season, and I have too. Our season ended up ~20% below average snowfall and there's just not enough left in the backcountry to justify skinning. It was nevertheless another great year, for an 80% season here is far better than a killer season most places. We had plenty of powder (although I'll admit that once again we lacked the uber-deep days that I grew accustomed to in my first six seasons in Utah). Pair that with good local friends, reuniting with friends from out of town and lots of laughs, and it was another wonderful winter in the Wasatch.
I had planned to ski Saturday and Monday over the Memorial Day weekend, but the sound of rain splattering against my bedroom window on Saturday morning prompted me to kill the alarm and roll back over. Despite today's modern technical fabrics I still can't stand that "drowned rat" feeling that comes with skiing in the rain. Wet snow was mixing in on the upper half of the mountain, but it was definitely liquid precipitation on the lower half.
So I found myself skiing on Sunday and Monday instead in order to hit my self-imposed target of 80 days this season. On Sunday, however, I was feeling lazy and didn't get up there until 10 a.m., which was a huge mistake as the snow was already well on its way toward transitioning to mush as temperatures in the Salt Lake Valley were hitting the mid-80s under a blistering sun. I had fun, but I found myself wishing that I'd been there earlier.
With nearly identical weather on Monday I didn't make that same mistake twice, and I was there with Bobby Danger and AmyZ among the very few who loaded Peruvian Express at the 8 a.m. opening. The Tram was back down for maintenance, so we had Peruvian along with Mineral Basin Express and Little Cloud Express to ride.
We emerged from the tunnel to find Mineral Basin with nearly perfectly ripe corn.
By 10 a.m. Mineral had gone sticky, Peruvian Gulch was already in prime form and the closing day crowds were seriously filling in, so after we gathered in the Forklift for breakfast I split. By that point both the parking at Entry 2 and along the Bypass Road were full, and they were spilling down toward Entry 1. Bobby and Amy stuck it out until noon when the crowds got to be too much for them, too.
After Monday Snowbird has wrapped up for the season, and I have too. Our season ended up ~20% below average snowfall and there's just not enough left in the backcountry to justify skinning. It was nevertheless another great year, for an 80% season here is far better than a killer season most places. We had plenty of powder (although I'll admit that once again we lacked the uber-deep days that I grew accustomed to in my first six seasons in Utah). Pair that with good local friends, reuniting with friends from out of town and lots of laughs, and it was another wonderful winter in the Wasatch.
