dust on crust

Sunday was more of the same from Saturday, with just an inch or two of new snow on top of the wind-driven firmness.  It was a little bit colder, a little bit windier, sunshine peeking through the fast-moving clouds.  The runs off the Supreme chair had the best conditions: the groomers held up throughout the day and Catherine's Area was better than the day before, although I still found it difficult to turn in the packed drifts.  Sugarloaf's runs were fast and the Sugarbowl got skied off quickly; the trails on the front side of Collins were pretty bad (meaning I wished I had edges on my skis, but still no eastern-class ice) until you got down below the angle station.

We hung out on Supreme mostly, going into Catherine's a couple of times but mostly sticking to groomers.  H took an "action" photo of me on a Sugarloaf run and at lunch I checked it out, horrified at my rigid posture.  H tells me that's how I always ski, how he can always pick me out when he looks back up the hill because my upper body is always so tight.  So I spent the afternoon trying to be more "dynamic," and will continue to work on that because man, I look like a dork all upright and stiff like that.

The antithesis of dynamism, right there

We did notice the lift lines growing a bit in the afternoon: all the really good skiers had left by lunchtime but all the tourists started showing up, here for their Christmas week.  You could tell by the sudden abundance of furred parka collars, brand new ski outfits and utter inability to navigate the lift gates.  It's been a lovely early season of scruffy locals at Alta but the invasion has begun.  Can't be helped, I suppose, but gosh it's been nice not waiting in any lift lines.  We'll see how the rest of vacation week turns out.