auld lang syne

 Even though "winter" has "begun," the snow is pretty sparse around here.  And folks (skiers, people who use water) are nervous about it.  The horrific inversion/air pollution moved out finally, thank goodness, but the snowstorms are still underdelivering.  Friday brought 9-12" inches, and another 5ish over the weekend, bringing Alta's YTD total to 105" with a 38" base depth.  That's still not nearly enough.  Alta is really rocky.

So, Saturday, H took the early bus up - not crowded, mostly employees - and hung out with the locker room regulars until the lifts opened.  It was cold and windy and lightly snowing all day.  The Supreme lift is still not open and it is still considered "early season" conditions.

Meanwhile, A and M did a 5k morning walk, and then hung around the house doing chores and awaiting the arrival of A's college roommate, Jennie, her husband Josh (both in town from Boulder, CO) and their oldest son, W, who has scored a liftie job at Alta for the season.  W was an A-Basin liftie last year and Alta has been on his liist of Places to Ski and Work.  The gang showed up late morning, did some car rearranging, and then headed off again for a quick lunch and to drop W at Alta.  Later, they reported three cars off the canyon road on the way up.  The snow had stopped by the time they were done getting W settled in.

Small storm situation

Milton was once again perplexed at having overnight guests, keeping a watchful eye on us all from his crate.  But it was really, really nice to catch up with Jennie and Josh - I saw her about five years ago but I haven't seen him since their wedding - and to hear about their lives.  They are skiers and hikers and bikers too, so we picked up some inside information on some good potential future trips.

H took off early Sunday to catch the ski bus; Jennie and Josh dropped W's car at the longterm ski area employee lot and Ubered to the airport.  That left A and Milton to do a Dimple Dell walk, get caught up on laundry, bake dark chocolate oat scones and make a red curry noodle soup for dinner.  When H got home, he was chilled: although the sun had come out late morning in the valley, it stayed socked in (terrible visibility) and cold (but not as cold as Saturday) up at Alta - the problem was standing in the lift line for an additional 20+ minutes for an undisclosed late-opening reason, and he never got warm again.  Back at home, he said that of the six ski days he's had so far, I wouldn't have liked any of them.  So I guess that's some justification for not getting a ski pass, at least for now.