christmas 2015

The last bit of storm rolled through Christmas Eve, giving Sundance an amazing 19" (!!!) but only giving Alta around four or five.  Still, it was going to snow off and on throughout the day, and four or five inches are just enough to freshen things up, keep them soft.  We did, however, get four or five inches in our driveway as well, so H had to shovel before we left.  We still got up there in good time, only missing first chair by five minutes.  Skiing Christmas has never been crowded and this Christmas was no different.  We enjoyed every moment of that too, because the coming weekend, as the start of Christmas vacation week, is going to be a nightmare of people.

Christmas Day chair selfie

We both dressed pretty warmly (temperatures ranged from 6 F to 18 F throughout the day) and for the stormy weather; it never bucketed down but it did snow all day.  I got my layers exactly right - down parka under my Flylow shell - and never got cold, except for my toes.  The wind started to pick up in the afternoon but not nearly as strongly as we had thought it might.  We did a couple of runs on Collins to warm up and then switched to Sugarloaf.  The snow was actually pretty good and when we jumped off the trails into the trees, it was deep.  Ski patrol has been working their tails off to get more terrain open.  With so few people there on Christmas, we got some good runs in.

In-progress ice beard

Supreme was open (apparently they opened it late Thursday, after H had left) and we had some very good runs there, even though Rock N Roll, Supreme Bowl and Catherine's Area were all still roped off.  No. 9 Express, the Erosion Gullies, the trees off of 3 Bears, even Challenger was good - and Challenger is hardly ever good.  After lunch (NOT crowded), we did a couple runs off Sugarloaf again, including a Cabin Run where we totally got stuck in the deep snow (waist-deep on me in places), before returning to Supreme.  We stayed there until 3 p.m., before skiing out and heading home.  We were reluctant to go because the snow was good and the lifts weren't crowded ... and that's not going to be our experience in the coming week.  A very nice Christmas Day indeed.