christmas eve 2011

Not surprisingly, the dearth of snow didn't keep us from heading up to Alta on Christmas Eve.  We didn't rush right up there - lingering a bit over our ham-and-egg-and-cheese sandwiches - but were still on the lift before 10:00 a.m.  We headed for the Sugarloaf lift first, seeking out trails in the sunshine as it was another gorgeous, bluebird day up in the mountains (even as the inversion has begun to slowly creep back into the valley).  But once there we glanced over at the Supreme lift and saw it turning - for the first time all season.  We hightailed it over there and were among the first people to get on the lift.

The Alta Ski Patrol had put up lots of signs with lots of exclamation points, asking people to use extreme caution whilst skiing off Supreme: thin cover and lots and lots of rocks on all the ungroomed trails.  Desperate to get off the groomers, we watched scores of people begin the hike into Catherine's Area before trying the ungroomed Upper Sleepy Hollow ourselves.  It wasn't that good: about five inches of soft snow atop a hard crust studded with hidden rocks.  Oh well.  We stayed over at the Supreme lift for a while even so, realizing that even if we were skiing groomers (to keep the bottoms of our skis on one piece) they were at least different groomers than we've been skiing all season.  

Bright sunshine on the top of Collins lift

(note my new Alta neck gaiter!)

Having the extra terrain open had the added benefit of spreading the people out a bit, so when we headed back to ski off Sugarloaf and Collins after lunch, the lift lines were negligible.  We kept making turns until 2:00 p.m., then headed home, following the line of cars off to their next Christmas Eve engagements.  For us, that means walking the dog, delivering cookies to the neighbors and supping on shepherd's pie and cheap champagne before falling asleep early while watching A Christmas Story.  Hope Santa doesn't wake us up when he gets here - got to get up and go skiing early tomorrow!