one and done

The internet lied to us.  We checked the current conditions at Alta before heading up there and it was supposed to be mid- to high 20s, light snow and light winds.  It was 24 when we pulled into the parking lot; the snow was coming down steadily in graupel form; and the wind was screaming, so much so that half of Alta's lifts were on delayed opening and Snowbird was refusing to open the tram at all.  Still, we'd come up and H wanted to practice his tele turns, so we thought to give it a try.

We grabbed onto the tow rope which dragged us from the Collins base area to the Albion base area because the Collins lift wasn't yet open and while the Wildcat lift was, you can't get to anywhere but Wildcat from that lift.  We then waited in a long line to ride the Sunnyside lift, as the winds picked up, then scooted over to the Cecret lift which would get us high enough to ski to the Supreme lift.  The snow was coming down pretty hard now, making for lovely soft conditions underfoot, even on the groomed trails. 

When we got to Supreme, there was hardly anybody there.  As we rode up on the lift, we figured out why: the wind really picked up once we cleared the trees and the visibility was pretty much nil.  About halfway down that first run, our faces being snowblasted by the graupel, H turned to me and said, "I think I'm okay if this is all we do today.  It really isn't any fun."  Luckily, we were about as far from the car as we could be so it was a long, slow slog out - the wind was coming up the mountain and pretty much stopped us in our tracks on any flat sections.

We made it back to Sunnyside, took the rope tow back to Collins, left H's telemark skis in the shop for an overnight tune and headed home - where it was calm and 40 with peeks of sunshine.