alta days

Things are back to normal chez nous. The ski guests have gone home - making B very sad since they both slipped her many tidbits - and we're wading through the mountain of laundry that results from skiing four days in a row.  In a nutshell: what a fantastic visit with Chris and Andrea!  And now the details:

Their flight got in around 7:30 p.m. on St. Patrick's Day which meant they were famished, having come from Maine.  We went to Squatter's for sustenance, which was busy as you might imagine, and ended up with a table after about an hour's wait - better than I had expected. 

Despite the late hour at which we finally got back home (which was late for H and even later for the east-coasters), we were up and at 'em, getting up to Alta not long after the first chair was loaded.  This year we found a ski/board rental shop in the shopping plaza near our house, so we were able to get discount lift tickets without having to drive all the way to the Lift House at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon like we did last year.  H, Andrea and I were all on alpine skis while Chris skied tele; he's a really good tele skier and H was pleased to have to be back on his downhill skis for a change.

We actually skied Friday and Saturday at Alta.  The snow was good but not fabulous as there hadn't been much new snowfall that week; avalanche-prone snowpack meant that much of the mountain (Devil's Castle, East Castle, Cecret Saddle, Castle Apron, the Ballroom and the trees off Rock-n-Roll) was closed.  Friday was partly sunny and we skied Catherine's Area mostly, with some runs on the Backside (East Greeley-ish) and in Wildcat as well.  Andrea and I quit one run early due to jelly legs and when the boys were done, we all enjoyed canned beer on the patio.  It was home for dinner - lasagne, salad and chocolate cake - and early to bed.

Saturday brought clouds, flat light and more wind, closing the Backside and rendering the Sugarloaf lift all but unbearable.  We stuck to the Supreme lift mostly: Catherine's Area via the high and low traverse and the trees near the lift - Piney Glade, Hammer Head, White Squaw Area and Vicky's.  I had a great day of skiing, regaining confidence and some semblance of form/rhythm, and particularly enjoyed Catherine's from the lower traverse.  Chris and Andrea handled the altitude and hiking much better on a decent night's sleep and had a better day despite the flat light.  We actually skied all the way until 4:00 p.m. before pausing for a beer inside the Goldminer's Daughter lodge and for Andrea to get a boot fix from the nice fellows at the Alta ski shop.  We rallied enough for dinner out at the Porcupine ... but bedtime was still well before 10 p.m. for all of us.

Next post: Sunday and Monday!