we got another storm

70s and sunny on Wednesday, snowing like the dickens on Friday - must be spring.  That latest snowstorm dropped a foot of powder at Alta and, since it snowed throughout the day the sun never came out and sludged it up.  There was the possibility of actual powder for Saturday's ski day!  Tracked out, sure, but still fluffy.  This of course presented me with quite a conundrum: what to wear (Saturday's forecast was for mostly clear skies but a morning low of 11) and which skis to take.

I'm happy to report that I got it wrong on all counts.  I completely overdressed and ended up having to take the liner out of my coat at lunchtime just so I wouldn't melt.  And although I brought both my powder skis and my all-mountains, a last minute/parking lot decision was for the all-mountains.  Generally speaking this was fine because 12" was not quite enough to keep us off the well-frozen crust underneath.  But when we ventured out aways, my poor little Volkls nosedived in the powder and I really struggled.

Cannot get enough of that sky!

Regardless, it was a very good day.  We skied all over the back of the resort, doing runs into Devil's Castle, East Greeley and, of course, Catherine's Area.  There was one exciting bit: when we were paused on the traverse up above the Yellow Trail area, we heard a shout of "heads up!"  Up above us a couple of patrollers were crossing the hill and instigated a very small slide.  H backed up a little bit and I stayed where I was ahead a little ways, and the little slide slid right between us, silent and speedy.  That's exactly as close as I ever want to get to an avalanche.

The season is definitely winding down (Sunday will be the last day for the Supreme lift to be open) and I don't think we'll get enough snow before Alta closes to reach their average of 500".  We're at 346" now, compared with the unusual 620" we had on this date last year.  Here's an illustration to demonstrate:

Me, on April 23, 2011:

Me, on April 7, 2012:

What a difference a year makes!