stumped

On H's fifth day of skiing (which A also would have hated, for several reasons), the official report was "no visibility and windy AF."  It was windy AF down in the Salt Lake valley too so I wasn't surprised.

Lots of rocks up there in Devil's Castle

The crummy visibility and crummy conditions (hard, fast, thin, rocky) were two reasons why A would have hated skiing this day.  The reason is as follows.  We really try to keep things positive around here but sometimes something seeps through.  

When we moved to Utah sixteen years ago and started skiing at Alta, the Supreme lift quickly became our favorite.  It was an old triple chair that required skiers to stand on a conveyor belt to load.  Because it was a triple, it had a fast singles line, since most folks ski in multiples of two; it served my favorite terrain; it was hidden, so not too many beginners ever found it; and the conveyor belt often provided entertainment.

In 2017, Alta built a new Supreme chair, a high speed detachable quad, replacing the old triple and the poky Cecret double.  The new lift loaded right outside Alf's lodge and had an eight degree bend, providing a rough ride in the middle.  I hated it: because it loaded at Alf's, all sorts of beginners now rode it, skiing expert terrain that they maybe shouldn't be on; the singles line was a mess; and that bumpy section in the middle was awful.  Meanwhile, Alta was all, woohoo, no one's ever done a chairlift with a bend before!  

Well, that's because the engineering doesn't work.  Most chairlifts have a life of 20-30 years before they need replacing.  The new Supreme lift got just seven years: due to too much stress because of that bend, Alta had to replace it last summer.  And in order to keep the existing loading/unloading points, they had to cut down a ton of trees to move the lift towers. 

That used to be my favorite tree at Alta

Including what used to be my favorite tree at Alta, an old, twisted, weathered but strong limber pine, clinging to a cliff just above the Diving Board jump feature.  Now it's just a stump, all its years of long life gone in an instant due to poor planning.  Stupid new new Supreme lift.

So as not to end on a negative note, while H was documenting Alta's savaging of its terrain, Milton and A did their Dimple Dell walk, made lentil soup and did more KitchenAid mixer-assisted baking: more ginger cookies and a loaf of olive oil bread.