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.