the week of skiing (second part)

The next bit of H's ski week was a bit unsettled.

Friday 1/2 - He took the bus up to Alta at the usual time.  Around 9 a.m., as the lines for first chair were getting long, word came out that there'd be a delayed opening, which there often is when there's some new snow.  Then the lights in the Goldminer's Daughter lodge blinked off and on.  The Collins and Wildcat lifts stopped running - a power pole had snapped by Wildcat - and they said that it would be a couple of hours until the generators could get those lifts running again.  It became a total shitshow, with a massive line at the rope tow, with people trying to get over to Sunnyside and Sugarloaf.  Plus all sorts of people went to the ticket windows, either asking for their money back or changing their Alta pass to a combination Alta-Snowbird pass.  

Too. Many. People.

H just gave up, getting home at 11:20 and taking himself to lunch at A Bar Named Sue (Milton got to hang out in the truck.)  He said the bus was packed but that 90% of the riders got off at Snowbird, hoping to salvage their ski day.  As you can see from the photo above (stolen from Reddit), folks didn't get to do much actual skiing at Snowbird.

Also stolen from Reddit

Saturday 1/3 - When H got home Saturday, he'd had a better day.  It was the most crowded that it's been all season, of course, but it was also the best snow all season.  And even though it was really windy and the light was flat, he didn't get drenched and chilled.  The newer snow is a little unstable - wet and heavy and lying atop old crusty stuff - and there was a slide across the EBT, which cut the available terrain even more: too many skiers on not many trails.

Holiday day tickets are $227: for flat light and no snow

Sunday 1/4 - More of the same, with no new snow, but perhaps slightly fewer skiers as the Christmas week tourists head home.  The light was flat and it was windy and still too warm, raining a bit at the base and then sleet and graupel at elevation.  On his arrival home, H commented that there are two kinds of ski bus drivers: the one who goes so fast that you think that the bus might roll on the corners; and the ultra-cautious poky one.  He got the poky one this time.

The flat light would be fine if it would actually 

snow in the mountains