queuing up

Sunday was nearly a carbon copy of Saturday: it was perhaps slightly warmer, with less wind, but it had the same snow conditions and the same clouds clearing throughout the day.  H was back on his telemark skis; we skied the same schedule of meeting up for lunch and then again at the truck between 2-2:30 p.m.  And the crowds came out again with a vengeance.

The rest of Devil's Castle from Sugar Face

I was sure that it wouldn't be as crowded, figuring that tourists that had been there for the vacation week would be heading home.  But the lift lines never thinned out and, if anything, seemed worse, in part due to both Supreme and Sugarloaf having stoppage issues.  Sugarloaf seemed to be having some mechanical issues but Supreme was almost entirely due to tourists falling off.  On the plus side, the day was mostly sunshiny and warm and people just seemed happy to be out skiing at Alta.
Ski patrol worked their tails off and got both the Main Chute on Baldy and Devil's Castle open.  H was a little crestfallen not to have his alpine skis on a Baldy day; although he is doing really well on his teles, his skills there are not what they need to be for a run down Main Chute.  Maybe next time!

Looking down the bowl towards Cecret Lake

As for me (I have no interest in the Main Chute or any other Baldy chute), I did a run in Devil's Castle, down Sugar Face and out towards the Cecret Chutes.  I also went in from the Rock N' Roll side, coming down through the Apron Bench trees and exiting through the trees by the top of Cecret lift.  The snow in there was pretty good since it hadn't been skied since Thursday's storm came through and dropped its refresher inches, perhaps a little stiff where the sun had hit it the day before.  As much as I love bluebird skies, though, it sure would be nice to get back to a bunch of storm systems rolling through.  Maybe March will be a lion month all the way through.