We arrived at Iron Blosam in familiar blue skies and warm temperatures. Sunday reached about the mid-40’s, warmer than any of our road trip days. However I’ve seen warmer than this, so this time most north facing terrain retained winter snow.
A large group from Iron Blosam headed up Peruvian about 10:30. 49er Gully and the last Fossil Chute I skied to Baldy were already soft. From Baldy I skied into Alta to meet Admin and get a replacement Ikon Pass. I had stashed it too carefully when I left on the two week road trip, so when I looked for it Sunday I used the 2019-20 Ikon from my ski wallet. Admin was skiing with Colin and Turner, who has skied in some Junior freeskiing competitions.
We took a couple of Harold’s/Tombstone laps, as that’s where the easily accessible north facing ungroomed was. We then skied to Supreme for a couple of cruisers, one of which was the infrequently groomed Challenger. We then took Sugarloaf back to the Collins side.
Admin is at lower right. I became reacquainted with the reality of weekend skiing at high profile ski areas. The Collins and Sugarloaf lines were present all day, averaging maybe 10 minutes. I heard some chairs at Snowbird, notably Mineral Basin, were more like 15 minutes.
Around 1:30 Colin and Turner left, and Admin and I had quesadillas from the food truck which replaced my primo Tesla parking spot from last year. After 2PM we were joined by Liz and decide to test West Rustler via the Saddle Traverse to avoid too long a commitment. Admin said it had not softened Saturday, and unfortunately not quite on Sunday either. The warmest days must have been earlier as we saw in Montana.
So we took the Ballroom traverse to Harold’s:
Admin and I found the best snow under a confined entry needing a diagonal sideslip past some rocks. Liz is in the more open area between the rope line and the large trees.
Admin drove Liz to Iron Blosam while I skied the very tedious Blackjack traverse in variable snow. View of Baldy Chutes from my last Collins ride:
Monday started out the same as Sunday, clear with temps mid 40’s by midday. Thus as on Sunday north facing remained winter snow and south facing softened early. The afternoon was different as it clouded over and there was some wind, most conspicuously while riding Sugarloaf at Alta.
Liz, Garry, Stephan, Michelle and I were on Ikons and spent most of Monday at Alta. 49er Gully was a bit crunchier than Sunday, likely due to the breeze. Liz and I cut though these bumps into lower Lupine Loop.
We took a Mineral Basin lap before heading to Alta and found that Powder Paradise and anything farther out that direction still had winter snow.
After a cruiser on Sugarloaf we skied Chartreuse, Stephan and Michelle here:
We noticed some people skiing Devil’s Castle fluidly so decided that would be worth the effort. Garry, Liz and Stephan on the short step-up to the traverse line:
Skiing Devil’s Castle:
We regrouped near the Cecret Chutes.
From there we skied 2 groomers on Supreme, then up Sugarloaf and the EBT to the Collins side. Here’s our group on Ballroom, now in the afternoon overcast:
After a Harold’s run, we skied Extrovert to Sugarloaf and made sure we got back into Snowbird by 3PM. Exiting Mineral Basin, I wanted to make use of being at the top of Hidden Peak during a week we weren’t using the tram. However, Liz and Michelle went the other way into the Gad Valley and took a run on Gadzoom to finish their day.
This was my somewhat flat light view into Macaroni.
Snow was very soft packed powder through that and most of the way down Upper Silver Fox. From its constriction we took the blind traverse skier’s left into the open bowl under the tram Garry is skiing here.
Lower down Garry cruised while Stephan skied Dalton’s and I skied Green Forest. Riding Peruvian, Green Forest is the gap behind the first line of trees.
We all skied Chip’s to groomed Lower Silver Fox and called it a day with 11,700 vertical at Alta and 9,500 at Snowbird. Liz and I spent most of these two days at Alta because we are nearing our Ikon limit and have Snowbird only tickets for Tuesday/Wednesday.
A large group from Iron Blosam headed up Peruvian about 10:30. 49er Gully and the last Fossil Chute I skied to Baldy were already soft. From Baldy I skied into Alta to meet Admin and get a replacement Ikon Pass. I had stashed it too carefully when I left on the two week road trip, so when I looked for it Sunday I used the 2019-20 Ikon from my ski wallet. Admin was skiing with Colin and Turner, who has skied in some Junior freeskiing competitions.
We took a couple of Harold’s/Tombstone laps, as that’s where the easily accessible north facing ungroomed was. We then skied to Supreme for a couple of cruisers, one of which was the infrequently groomed Challenger. We then took Sugarloaf back to the Collins side.
Admin is at lower right. I became reacquainted with the reality of weekend skiing at high profile ski areas. The Collins and Sugarloaf lines were present all day, averaging maybe 10 minutes. I heard some chairs at Snowbird, notably Mineral Basin, were more like 15 minutes.
Around 1:30 Colin and Turner left, and Admin and I had quesadillas from the food truck which replaced my primo Tesla parking spot from last year. After 2PM we were joined by Liz and decide to test West Rustler via the Saddle Traverse to avoid too long a commitment. Admin said it had not softened Saturday, and unfortunately not quite on Sunday either. The warmest days must have been earlier as we saw in Montana.
So we took the Ballroom traverse to Harold’s:
Admin and I found the best snow under a confined entry needing a diagonal sideslip past some rocks. Liz is in the more open area between the rope line and the large trees.
Admin drove Liz to Iron Blosam while I skied the very tedious Blackjack traverse in variable snow. View of Baldy Chutes from my last Collins ride:
Monday started out the same as Sunday, clear with temps mid 40’s by midday. Thus as on Sunday north facing remained winter snow and south facing softened early. The afternoon was different as it clouded over and there was some wind, most conspicuously while riding Sugarloaf at Alta.
Liz, Garry, Stephan, Michelle and I were on Ikons and spent most of Monday at Alta. 49er Gully was a bit crunchier than Sunday, likely due to the breeze. Liz and I cut though these bumps into lower Lupine Loop.
We took a Mineral Basin lap before heading to Alta and found that Powder Paradise and anything farther out that direction still had winter snow.
After a cruiser on Sugarloaf we skied Chartreuse, Stephan and Michelle here:
We noticed some people skiing Devil’s Castle fluidly so decided that would be worth the effort. Garry, Liz and Stephan on the short step-up to the traverse line:
Skiing Devil’s Castle:
We regrouped near the Cecret Chutes.
From there we skied 2 groomers on Supreme, then up Sugarloaf and the EBT to the Collins side. Here’s our group on Ballroom, now in the afternoon overcast:
After a Harold’s run, we skied Extrovert to Sugarloaf and made sure we got back into Snowbird by 3PM. Exiting Mineral Basin, I wanted to make use of being at the top of Hidden Peak during a week we weren’t using the tram. However, Liz and Michelle went the other way into the Gad Valley and took a run on Gadzoom to finish their day.
This was my somewhat flat light view into Macaroni.
Snow was very soft packed powder through that and most of the way down Upper Silver Fox. From its constriction we took the blind traverse skier’s left into the open bowl under the tram Garry is skiing here.
Lower down Garry cruised while Stephan skied Dalton’s and I skied Green Forest. Riding Peruvian, Green Forest is the gap behind the first line of trees.
We all skied Chip’s to groomed Lower Silver Fox and called it a day with 11,700 vertical at Alta and 9,500 at Snowbird. Liz and I spent most of these two days at Alta because we are nearing our Ikon limit and have Snowbird only tickets for Tuesday/Wednesday.
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