snowiest

 As of this writing (some time before posting, tbh), it is officially the snowiest season since Utah started keeping records in 1952: Alta has had 749 inches of snowfall and it's still snowing (it will never stop snowing, apparently).  Since the first snow on October 22, they've averaged 4.9" per day.  For those of you who aren't math fans, 749 inches is 62.4 feet.  It's settled, of course, and Alta's base depth is 210 inches, which is still 17.5 feet.  We'd better hope for a cool, slow spring because if we get 90s in May like we have had in recent years, we're all going to need a snorkel.

The latest storm brought Alta 51" of fresh snow over a period of just a few days and so there were multiple interlodge events, multiple canyon road closures and massive avalanches, both intentionally triggered and natural.  On Friday, they lifted the afternoon interlodge long enough to let the 1,500+ people who were crammed into the base area buildings out of the canyon and then re-closed the road at 10 p.m.  H went to bed that night hoping to be able to get up there but not particularly confident about it.

In the morning, UDOT said the Little Cottonwood Canyon road would open at 8:30.  By 6:42 a.m. H had a seat on the bus but they were being held at the park-and-ride.  At 7:17, the bus got a police escort to the base of the canyon, ahead of all the private vehicles already lined up.  At 7:30, they pushed the canyon opening back to 9:30.  By 9, both Brighton and Solitude reported that their parking lots were full.  At 9:18, they opened LCC and the bus started up, getting H to Albion Base around 10.  Alta then reported they were delaying their opening until 10:45 and H had a small panic when he overheard an employee say she'd heard they might not open at all.  But by 10:35, the "delayed opening" banner was off the Alta website and it was GAME ON.

There was a lot closed, of course, due to avalanche danger: Baldy, the Ballroom, Main Street, the Backside, the EBT, Devil's Castle, East Castle, Rock N' Roll, Supreme Bowl and Catherine's Area; the Supreme lift didn't open until the afternoon.  Even the rope tow was closed - they hadn't had a chance to dig out the rope - so it was a long, slow slog from Albion Basin to Wildcat base area.  You might ask, was it still worth it, with all the closures?  The answer, according to H, was a resounding yes.  He skied hard and everywhere was the same: ridiculous amounts of deep, soft snow.  Well worth the effort.

In non-skiing news, Milton and I took a long walk and I did a bunch of cooking again: blueberry muffins, chocolate chip cookies (which sadly did not turn out as I had expected), red lentil soup, spiced lentil tamale pie, InstantPot black beans and peach cobbler filling.  The laundry also got put away - all of it!  (Well worth the effort.)

ain't no spring here

 There has been no sign of spring in northern Utah - or even southern Utah, as St. George, which usually has around three days in the 70s in March, will not have seen a single day in the 70s in March this year - with cold temperatures and snow (so much snow) continuing to roll in.  

We were back up at Alta the weekend right before "spring" with both of us skiing Saturday and just H skiing Sunday.  We got up at 5:30, left the house at 6:30, got a seat on the second bus of the day and were up at Albion Base by 7:15.  (This time we didn't spring for an exorbitantly priced cup of coffee.)  There are still struggles with the new six-person Sunnyside chair: skiers, especially beginners, cannot successfully count to six, and the lifties have not figured out the best way to get people through the gates in the right numbers.  Still, we got on without waiting too long and then skied right onto the Supreme chair.

#iykyk

The snow is, as you might imagine, fantastic.  The cold temperatures have kept it soft and there's just so much of it - whole sheds and houses are buried and the trail signs are at hip-height.  We skied at Supreme for a number of runs, H venturing into the trees and popping back out with a grin on his face, until it got crowded.  We shifted to Sugarloaf, found it quite cold with the wind (as it often is) and moved to the front side to ski Collins.  Unsurprisingly, the snow was terrific there too - Corkscrew may have been the best its ever been - although high traffic areas were getting skied off just a bit.  We noticed lots of people taking the traverse all the way across Ballroom and skiing the chutes on Baldy Shoulder.

There are markers like this all over now

so the snowcats don't run over buried buildings

My legs are not in shape (that's not an excuse, it's a fact as I have not been good about doing squats this winter) and so I skied out to catch the 1:30 p.m. bus.  H skied an hour longer and when he got home, we took advantage of the marginally-warm temperatures - the sun was out! - to tailgate in the driveway.

Alf's is pretty much an igloo now

On Sunday, I did a long walk with Milton, started some seeds (hot peppers, Thai and regular basil and cilantro) and did a bunch of meal-prep cooking (pumpkin muffins, maple oat bars, lentil "sausage patties" and "egg" squares for breakfast sandwiches, cashew cream, cajun spiced beans and pureed butternut squash) while H skied.  It was a little colder and a little less sunny up at Alta so the snow had stiffened up a bit and wasn't quite as good off-piste.  It was a little colder and a little less sunny down in the valley too but that didn't stop us from bundling up and tailgating again. 

catching a break

 We did actually catch a bit of a break with the weather on Saturday.  It rained in the morning and it rained in the afternoon, but there was a window in the middle of the day where blue sky actually broke through.  Milton and I took advantage and went for a hike: the Moab Rim loop/lollipop. 

Pretty desert

We didn't break any new ground - up the steep Moab Stairmaster trail, out around the Moab Rim loop counterclockwise so that we went up Tire Test Hill and down Sand Hill, out through the wash and back down - but I did note a wash before Tire Test and a side canyon in the wash that I want to check out next time.  I'm sure Milton won't mind a little extra exploration.

Milton also likes the view

Because of the recent rain, there were plenty of potholes from which Milt could drink.  The sand of Sand Hill was also nice and compacted, easy to walk in, relatively speaking.

Follow the red sandy road

We pretty much had it to ourselves too.  There were several women finishing up an earlier morning Stairmaster circuit as we started; we saw three hikers out on the loop portion; and there were maybe five vehicles making their way up the steep part as we came down.  We also saw a very large desert cottontail - Milton gave it his best chase but that bunny was savvy enough to lose him without much trouble.  

"Where's that dang rabbit?"

rainy days and fridays

The fact that northern Utah (and the mountains of mid- and southern Utah too) has gotten so much snow this winter meant that we also hardly got any inversion/air pollution days (yay!).  It also meant that we hardly ever saw the sun and we've missed it a bit.  On our last trip to Moab, we didn't figure we'd see the sun much then either as the forecast was for rain; off-and-on rain; and chance of rain.  But we packed our boots and our raincoats and our positive attitudes so it all worked out.

Running in sand is fun!

On Friday, Milton and I had planned to hike Corona Arch.  This is a very, very popular hike - so popular that it's been almost ten years since I've done it.  Since then, they've improved the trailhead a lot, making it much bigger and adding an outhouse.  I figured that since it was a rainy Friday morning in mid-March, Milton and I wouldn't have to deal with many people.  We should have gotten a much earlier start because by the time we got there (9:30ish), not only were twenty-some cars in the parking lot, the Moab Trail Ambassadors had set up their tent, meaning that they expected a lot more people throughout the day.  I turned around in the Gold Bar campground and drove back up river just a bit to Middle Earth instead.

Greening up in spots

On the downside, Middle Earth isn't nearly as long a hike as I'd intended (not that Corona Arch is all that long either, about three miles roundtrip).  On the plus side, there was no one there.  There were a few wet spots in the wash from the recent rain and the catch-pool from where intermittent waterfalls come over the cliffs into the amphitheater was pretty big; the grass in the wash was grateful for all the moisture and quite green.  

Got out of the rain

When we got to the amphitheater, we climbed up onto the slickrock and walked out to the rim of Bootlegger Canyon - where we had a view of Corona Arch (and all the people milling around the base of it).  We did see a solo hiker down below in Bootlegger Canyon: H and I had been unable to make our way through the vegetation when we tried it before but apparently there's a way though in the early spring, before stuff really starts growing.

Tiny little purple flower

(40 lb. dog's feet for scale)

It started to get windy with some light rain (just for a few minutes, long enough to get everything damp), so we didn't linger out on the rock too long.  Long enough to spot the first tiny wildflower of the season, however - spring is springing at last!

lapse

 That week got away from me ... posts from a recent trip to Moab to come very soon but as a placeholder, Milton continues to make new friends (although he's very uneasy about being up on the couch):

odyssey

 Sunday morning everything was closed, pretty much.  We'd gotten four-ish inches at the house but the mountains had gotten two FEET.  Solitude delayed their opening so they could dig out; the town of Alta was on "maximum interlodge," which means that not only can you not go outside, you should stay away from windows and doors; and State Route 210 (Little Cottonwood Canyon road) was closed until 8:30 a.m. for avalanche mitigation.  H got up, shoveled the driveway and was at the bus stop by 6:45.  After watching one bus head up towards the canyon without even stopping at his stop, a second bus showed up at 7 a.m. with no one on board.  Everyone (20+) waiting got on and got seats.  Then they waited. And the estimated time of opening for SR210 got pushed back to 9:30.

Around 7:40, H's bus (which never filled up) and three private shuttles got police-escorted up to the front of the waiting line of traffic.  Then they waited.  At 8:30, the estimated time of opening for SR210 was pushed back to 10:30 and Alta delayed their opening.  H started thinking things through: if the road opened at 10:30, he'd be at the front of the line and would get two feet of fresh.  But if the road didn't open then, would it be possible that Alta wouldn't open at all?

At 9:50, the estimated time of opening for SR210 was pushed back to noon.  H, who had already been on this odyssey for four hours, decided to cut his losses.  There was nowhere for the bus to turn around so he had to shoulder his bootbag and skis and walk.  Meanwhile, Milton and I had shoveled the sidewalks and done our four mile walk.  When we got home, we jumped in my car and drove to meet H, who had made it about halfway down 9400 South.

As soon as he got home, he immediately started second-guessing his decision.  SR210 did indeed open at noon; and Alta opened shortly thereafter, with the Collins, Wildcat and Sunnyside lifts spinning.  At the time of this writing (a week before posting, with full disclosure), he was still kind of annoyed with himself for having gotten off that bus.  Two feet of new snow!  To which I would counter, over FIVE hours on a bus.  It's all about priorities, I guess.

PS - Milton and I also did laundry, changed the sheets, made dog cookies and chocolate chip cookies and tried a brand new chili recipe.  And were thankful that we didn't spend any time on a bus.

whither spring

March has come in like a lion, here in northern Utah.  I had a dentist appointment on Friday: our dentist, who also skis at Alta, and I commiserated about the fact that there have been no sunny ski days for us this year (he also downgraded from a full season pass to a 10-pack, like I did) - while also recognizing that there have been far too many recent years where there's been nothing but sunny days all winter.  Alta hit 600 inches of seasonal snowfall (and then surpassed it, more later) this first weekend in March, which means that if we didn't get another snowstorm for the rest of the season, we'd still be above average snowfall.  Spoiler alert: we got another snowstorm.

But Saturday morning found H and me up at 5:30 a.m. (an ungodly hour, if you ask me) and leaving the house at 6:30 for the second-earliest ski bus of the day.  We got on, we got seats, we got up to Albion Day Lodge before it opened.  We waited just a couple minutes in the lodge' vestibule until 7:30, then went in when an employee unlocked the doors.  Then we had an hour and 45 minutes to wait until the lifts opened - but we were seated, reading our books, drinking $5 cups of mediocre coffee, which was much more pleasant than the last weekend with a 2.5 hour SRO bus ride.

$5 for this.  That's ridiculous.

When the lifts opened at 9:15, we were in the singles line at Sunnyside.  There are still great struggles with loading that six-person lift - of the first twenty chairs we saw go up, only two had a full complement of six riders.  We got on after standing in line for ten minutes or so (really not that bad) and headed straight to Supreme, which we rode until the singles line pushed out past the end of the corral (close to 10:30).  The snow was terrific.  There was deep, soft, untracked stuff to be found in the trees but even the high traffic groomers were soft.  There was no sunshine, however, with the next storm slowly pushing its way in, and the light was very flat.  I stuck to the groomers while H played around with the trees and the bumps.

Yeah, I'm standing at the second story of that cabin

After Supreme got too crowded, we moved over to Sugarloaf and quickly discovered why the lines were so short there: very windy and cold.  But the snow was so good that we stayed there anyway, doing laps.  H did a run through Chartreuse and came out beaming - no rocks with 600+ inches.  Despite my tentativeness at not being able to see well, I followed him into an off-piste section between Extrovert and Devil's Elbow which was fun, deep and soft and not at all overrun with skiers.  After that we did a run down Razorback - easy to get up that first hill with the tailwind! - and then did a Cabin Run.  So much snow!

That dorky parka is from the late 1990s

#mycoatisolderthanyou

Speaking of so much snow, since it was lunchtime, we shifted back over to Supreme and did a run through Catherine's Area.  Super fun, super deep and soft ... and I quickly realized how out of ski shape my legs have become with only skiing ten days (and sticking to the groomers most days).  My hamstrings were shrieking and my quads starting to shake, so I called it quits, skiing out through Sunnyside back to Albion base to pick up my bootbag.  

The plan had been for me to wait at the Goldminer's Daughter lodge for H so we could take the 2:39 bus together.  But the lodge was swarming with people (no place to sit) and it was starting to snow (possibility of down-canyon traffic delays with accumulation), so I just hopped on the waiting 1:39 bus instead.  H skied another hour and caught the 2:39 as planned.  

He made it down just fine but he must have been just ahead of the snow because later that night, when we checked social media, Alta had gotten eleven inches between the time H left the resort and the time he went to bed (8:30 p.m.).  In like a lion indeed.

blustery

 The mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon was jammed with traffic again by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.  This wasn't an issue for H, however, as he'd gotten on the 6:43 (ish) bus and was already at Albion Day Lodge, waiting for them to unlock the doors so he could go in.  Lifts start turning at 9:15 a.m., by the way.  It is insane that people have to get up there so early to avoid sitting in traffic - and he wasn't the only one doing it - but at least he didn't have any difficulty finding a table to sit at.  It was snowing a little but it dissipated as the morning wore on, contrary to the forecast that said it was going to snow all day.  It was quite windy - both up at Alta and down in the valley - so some kind of front is definitely on it's way in.

Superior, looking ominous and moody

That forecast was in large part why I didn't go.  Instead, Milton and I took a couple of long walks, cleaned the house, addressed the laundry situation and made chocolate chip cookies.

Back to skiing.  It was busy again, with some of the usual liftline shenanigans: H said that the Alta lifties were doing a really good job managing the chaos, although at one point the whole Supreme singles line was yelling at the doofus at the front of said singles line, not paying attention and going out when called.

This is the maintenance shed at the 

bottom of the Razorback trail

The snow had set up a little from the day before.  Devil's Castle was still closed and H only saw about four people daring to go in the Backside, so that wasn't any good.  He did attempt a Catherine's Area run, based on how good it had been Saturday, but the snow was stiff, churned up and difficult to turn in.  He found much greater success along the edges of the trails where the snow has been pushed, and flirted with those all day.  

the wheels on the bus don't go 'round and 'round

After we got back from Moab, northern Utah got a very nice storm (except that 20" in the valley is unnecessary), pushing Alta's snow totals well above 500 inches.  We then got a little refresher on Friday which is all to say that on Saturday - during February vacation, by the way - there was a ridiculous amount of traffic heading up the canyons.   As far as Little Cottonwood Canyon goes, this is mostly Snowbird's fault: everyone has to have a reservation to park at Alta but Snowbird has both free and paid lots, neither of which require reservations, so everyone tries to get up there.  (And no, a gondola is not the answer.)

When we got to our ski bus stop, which is the second stop of the route, there weren't too many people there yet, but a crowd had assembled by the time the bus showed up.  It was full and the driver refused to let any of us on.  Because of reduced service, the next bus wouldn't arrive for a half hour, at which point even more people would be waiting.  I had the idea that we should drive to the first stop of the ski bus route and (hopefully) get on the next bus then.  When we got there, there was a crowd of about fifty people waiting; we got on, but it was SRO by the time we boarded.  At the second stop, there was a big crowd but our driver could only take two people, resort employees who were trying to just get to their damn jobs.  We started up the canyon, got a mile and then stopped dead in traffic.

Maine mountains represent! (Sunday

River, Sugarloaf and Saddleback)

It took us 2.5 hours to get to Alta.  Since it was nearly 10 a.m. (and the shuttle wasn't waiting at the bus stop), we dashed into Goldminer's Daughter, threw our gear on (I remembered the batteries for my socks!), and left our boot bags outside at the end of the patio (lockers are now $12/day (up from $1.50) and unattended bags will be put outside anyway).  

Steep and deep in Catherine's Area

It was a day for standing in lift lines, although the singles lines moved relatively quickly.  Cloudier and warmer than forecast, the snow was really quite good, but the light was flat and I struggled with the visibility.  I also was struggling a bit with having stood on the bus for nearly three hours first and my feet and legs got fatigued quickly.  I took the bus back down an hour before H did (and then walked home with my skis and boot bag from our usual stop), while he stayed up to enjoy the snow.  Devil's Castle was closed and they opened Backside late, but he got into Catherine's Area and it was "great!"  Certainly a lot of snow in there right now.  It'll be fun to go up in the spring and summer to see how long it lasts.