ooooo fun stuff

The snow kept coming overnight and into Sunday, a very welcome thing for those of us in northern Utah.  When we got up Sunday morning, the canyon alerts told us that the canyon would be closed for avalanche control until 8 a.m.; given H's brutal bus rides earlier this season, we decided that it would be best if we got on the 7 a.m. bus rather than the 7:30 a.m. one (*all bus times are actually departure-from-the-house times).  We got to the bus stop, where there were only a couple other people, and when the bus pulled up, it was full enough that we had to stand but not jam-packed.  The bus headed up 9400 South and easily made it across Wasatch Boulevard before stopping in the line of traffic waiting for the canyon road to open.  The traffic gods were smiling on us, it seems, because the powers-that-be opened the road before 8 and it only took us 1.5 hours from our house to Goldminer's Daughter.  The snow had stayed high and the road had stayed clear.  It was a good omen.

In the trees through the first gate off

So Long in Catherine's Area

It was still snowing - not heavily but steadily - and it was cold (8F at the top), which kept the snow light and fluffy.  The crowd waiting for Collins to open was massive - although not nearly as bad as H experienced on Saturday - so we thought we'd head straight to Supreme to see if we could get into Catherine's Area ahead of the crowds.  We did get in there and the snow was great.  We cruised down So Long and went into our favorite gate there, with deep snow under the trees.  We stayed at Supreme for the whole morning, actually, skiing areas,  that I haven't skied all season due to the low snow conditions: the Spiney Chutes in Supreme Bowl, under the chair in Hammerhead/White Squaw, Vicky's, all the way out to Last Chance.  The snow was great and I felt like I wasn't fighting too much given how light and fluffy it was.  H also gave me some coaching and I tried to keep my hands forward and not drop my arm behind me in the turns.

About to shoot the chute

I did have to go in to warm my toes up for a bit but around that and lunch (large bucket of fries because we were starving), we stayed at Supreme and Sugarloaf: the trees off Rock N' Roll, Razorback, Extrovert, Chartreuse, etc.  Even with the ski traffic, the snow was light enough that it wasn't getting clumped up, plus it really didn't seem that crowded, all things considered.

At 2ish my legs were tired: I just haven't skied that much off-piste this year.  H did another couple of runs off Collins before joining me in the lodge.  We had a couple of quick beers and caught the 3:04 bus down.  We got seats and traffic wasn't too bad at that hour.  Soon enough we were back home, heating up homemade soup for dinner, our [my] tired legs complaining a little.  But we weren't complaining - what a great day of skiing.