closing day 2018/2019

Ah, closing day for Alta's 2018/2019 season.  Bittersweet as it always is: the season seems so long (end of November to end of April) and yet it's done already; we're ready to move on to hiking and biking and yet it's difficult to put our ski gear away.

On the old way to Supreme chair

After I took my brother to the airport for his flight home, H and I puttered around the house before heading up to Alta.  We got onto the Collins chair around 9:30 and, amazingly, the snow was already soft.  It just hadn't gotten cold overnight and never froze up - that was great!  It also was a little cloudier than it had been on Saturday, meaning that the snow never got sticky, even into the afternoon - that was also great!

Final chair selfie on the final day

There were more people skiing Sunday than there had been and folks had gotten out their closing day costumes: lots of tutus and unicorn horns, a telemark gorilla, a flying squirrel, a whole bunch of short shorts and jeans shorts.  Public service announcement: if you fall whilst skiing in shorts, you're going to get wicked road rash/snow burn.  Not an issue for us, as we're not costume people.

Alta's "Wiggle-Cam" shot

Since the snow was soft right from the get-go, we covered some ground, doing an around-the-world from the top of Collins, down the old cut-off to Supreme, past Supreme and Alf's to Albion and across the rope tow back to Wildcat base.  Rollercoaster and Extrovert were skiing well; Razorback was pretty good but also pretty bumpy.  We did a bunch of laps on the front side too, where we could watch all the people throwing themselves down the Wiggle (a/k/a luge run, a/k/a snake run) that had been set up in the Ballroom.  It was huge, with high sides, and people who took corner 3 too fast found themselves launched out of it.  It was very entertaining to watch.

Jeez, you might as well close for 

the season then if there's no more beer

I cried uncle around 2;30 - even though the snow wasn't sticky, it was bumped up and heavy and my legs were tiring quickly. H noticed that the Goldminer's Daughter had sold out of beer so we skipped the patio and instead had a couple of our own in the parking lot.  We walked around a bit too, to see if there was any closing day revelry going on; there were a few grills going but everyone was pretty bundled up and the chilly breeze was keeping the tailgating on the quiet side.  Back at the truck, we toasted the season and loaded up our gear.  I both can't believe skiing is over and am also ready for it to be over.