deep

Sunday found us smack-dab in the middle of the latest big snowstorm: by late afternoon, Alta's stats were: 11 inches in the last 12 hours, 23 inches in the last 24 hours and 32 inches from the storm, bringing us to 391 inches on the season and a good 151-inch base. 

Ski it today, drink it tomorrow

Of course, all this new snow brings other things, especially on a holiday weekend: lots of cars standing in line, waiting to get up the canyon which was closed until 8:30 a.m. due to plowing and avalanche control issues. Here are some other numbers for you, then: 2.5 hours to get from our house to Alta.  It usually takes us 20 minutes.  We did our best to be patient while sitting in the parking lot known as Little Cottonwood Canyon Road, though, since we're certainly not resentful of UDOT or the police - we'd like to get up there, but we want to do it safely.

And we did get up there safely, to ridiculous amounts of snow.  It was blowing pretty good at the Collins base area but when we got over to Supreme, the wind totally died and the sun tried (and failed as it continued to snow all day) to come out.  The new snow was well over my knees everywhere, soft as anything, and in Supreme's chutes came up to my waist.  It was so much fun and you HAD to find the steepest stuff because otherwise you'd just stop, stuck in all that powder.  We both fell a lot and man, it was tough to dig yourself back out sometimes.  I even managed to go skis over teakettle right under the chairlift - but did not tweak my back at all.  The only bad part was that I'm a total spaz when it comes to really deep snow: I just tense up and fight the snow, which is exhausting.

Steep and deep - and smiling!

H kept an eye on the notice boards and his phone because of the potential for road closures: we'd hate to get interlodged (when they close the road and skiers have to stay in the lodge overnight) because then poor B would miss her dinner.  We were at Collins base at 2:15, thinking about heading back up to Watson Shelter for a snack and a quick break when he noted that they were planning on closing the road at 2:30 for about an hour for avalanche control.  We booked it to the truck, threw our gear in the back, scraped off the windshield ... and missed getting out before they closed the road by four cars.  Still, we only sat there for about an hour, making our total descending time still half what our ascent had taken.  And again, as we cruised down the clear, not-slippery asphalt, we were grateful to the plow- and avi-guys for taking such good care of this canyon we've grown (already) to love.