ski with a ranger

On Sunday morning, my legs were still a little sore/fatigued from the explore-the-mountain workout H put me through on Saturday, so I was secretly grateful when he said that he was going back to his telemark skis and thus wouldn't be quite so adventurous (but did look way cooler, what with the free-heeling).  We took our time getting up there but even so, the snow was pretty solid: with Saturday having been so warm, the snow really froze up overnight and anything ungroomed was pretty rugged until after noontime.

Yay for bluebird days! 

When it got close to 1:30 p.m., we decided to swing by the base of the Cecret lift to "Ski with a Ranger," a program offered at Alta on weekends and holidays. The Cottonwood Canyons Foundation offers up volunteers who give a little presentation on Alta's human and natural history and the canyons' watershed. Calling it "skiing" might be a bit of a stretch: we basically slid down a bunny trail from Alf's Lodge to the Albion Lodge. But our U.S. Forest Service ranger was great, knowledgeable, personable and entertaining. It took about 45 minutes and this is some of what we learned:  

• All the trees at Alta are planted: the mining operations had deforested the canyon, leading to devastating avalanches.  When the Forest Service got involved, they asked Alf Engen where would be a good place for a ski resort, Alf said Alta, but they needed to plant trees.  So they planted thousands of them (and still are).  That means what's cool about Alta's trails is that instead of cutting down trees to make ski trails, they put trees in to add definition.
• There are three types of evergreen trees up at Alta: sub-alpine fir, Englemann spruce and limber pines.  Deciduous trees include willows and aspens.  A grove of aspen is actually one plant as all the aspens in a grove are connected to each other underground.
• Main Street of the town of Alta used to be right where the tow rope is today.  At the mining boom, there were easily 5,000 people living in Alta in the summer, with another 3,000 further up the canyon in Grizzly Gulch.  Avalanches and fires destroyed the town of Alta multiple times, scouring it clean of the saloons and brothels that kept popping up.
• Albion Basin is considered a frozen reservoir and the water coming out of LCC is used as it comes out of the canyon and is not held for later use.
• Our snow contains only 10% water (on average) which is why it's the Greatest Snow on Earth - light and dry.
• There are only thirty residential dog permits for folks living in the town of Alta and there's quite a waiting list for them, as you might imagine.
• The Forest Service got the land in the first place because some guy named Watson, who'd bought up the whole upper canyon from discouraged miners, was way behind on his taxes.  He handed over the land instead.

We packed it in after that, pausing for a quick beer on the sunny patio.  And then, once more, home to simply count the days until we ski again.

Mellow patio scene at Gold Miner's Daughter