ski guests day 1: alta

Our ski guests, C and A, arrived Wednesday night along with several of H's work associates.  We had dinner at Squatters (who thankfully had Full Suspension on tap again after having been out earlier in the week) then headed home to lay out our gear for the first ski day.  Another friend of ours, W, had also come in on the same flight; he and his wife were staying up at Snowbird and the plan was to pick him up on the way to Alta.

We didn't get a terribly earlier start since it's been quite warm during the day: the soft, slushy afternoon snow sets up overnight and the first couple of hours are frozen.  We collected W and were on the hill between 10-10:30 a.m.  The sun was strong in the cloudless sky and although the trails were pretty solid to start, when they softened up, they softened up quickly.  We skied in Supreme Bowl and Catherine's Area until lunch - and went in for lunch late because the conditions were getting so good.  C, W and H are all very good skiers (C and W are tele-guys) and A and I, while not as good at the boys, can certainly hold our own, so we were able to ski together which was a lot of fun.  A and I only bailed out once whe n the boys picked a cliff-ish line under the Supreme chair down into the Piney Glade chutes.

Lunch was on the deck at Alf's - very warm in the sun - then we moved around a little more, skiing the backside/East Greeley/Yellow Trail area and also doing one hike into Devil's Castle, which is finally open after having been closed all season.  The snow was soft enough and it sure was fun to ski something that we haven't been able to get to yet.

We skied almost 'til close, then had some beers on the patio at Goldminer's Daughter until W's wife came by to coordinate dinner plans.  We scooted home, cleaned up and rejoined the non-skiing work contingent for pre-dinner drinks at Kristauf's Martini Bar and dinner at Cafe Trio.  We were home and in bed by 10 p.m., needing to rest up before day 2.