boxing day

No, no, there's no boxing on Boxing Day - there's skiing on Boxing Day, of course!  After chili and cheese scromblets*, we headed back up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta, leaving B to pout on the couch for another day.  We assumed that today would be way busy, what with it no longer being actual Christmas but being part of Christmas vacation week, but we nabbed a great parking spot and didn't wait in lift lines hardly at all.  The parking lot was maybe two-thirds full when we left which surprised us.

Perhaps it was because it was Sunday, and local day crowds are down because all the Mormons have to go to church, or maybe it was because the clouds had rolled in.  The light was awful, really flat, making it nearly impossible to see what you were skiing over.  Not that it really mattered, since for the third day in a row I stuck to the groomers.  Man, I am so bored with groomers - my back had better be ready by next weekend!

Actually, H largely stuck to the groomers with me this time: the bumps and ungroomed snow have really started to set up, making it tough on the knees.  He would ski on the edges of the trails where it was still soft, but didn't venture too far afield.  Luckily, it began to snow after a couple of hours and having just a little bit of new snow - soft, light, fluffy - overtop of the corduroy was quite nice.  I don't think they're expecting a whole lot of new snow, but every little bit counts.  And another storm is due towards the end of the week - that would be great for New Year's skiing!

Wildlife report:  no ermines, but we got really close to a very brave grouse or patridge of some sort, a big one, who was nonchalantly standing in the middle of the trail just underneath the top of the Sugarloaf lift, ignoring all the skiers schussing by.  It flew off when H approached for a photo opportunity.

*They were supposed to be chili and cheese omelets, but the eggs ended up more on the scrambled side. Still tasty!