apparently winter ain't over yet

 Time is running out on the 2023/2024 ski season.  Not that you'd know it from the weather.  Although it hit 70 in SLC on Wednesday - and it was glorious - a cold front started pushing in onThursday (windy), arrived Friday (plummeting temperatures) and the system settled into the Cottonwood Canyons overnight into Saturday.  We got a dusting of snow by Saturday morning but by 3 p.m. Saturday, Alta had gotten 18" in the last 24 hours and, to look at the mountain webcams, it wasn't letting up anytime soon.  It was also cold: 20F at the base and 9F at the top.

I'm over it with winter conditions.  Call me a wimp, a fair weather skier, but I'm tired of being wet and cold and I want a goggle tan.  So I didn't go.  The valley weather was better than forecasted (the forecasts have not been that accurate all winter, IMHO), but in the 30s and mostly cloudy, with off and on flurries.  Milton and I did a good walk in the morning, including him getting a game of off-leash chase with a neighborhood dog.  And then I was productive: pumpkin-cranberry-walnut muffins, chocolate chip cookies, baked tofu, peach preserves and chickpea/walnut taco "meat" for dinner, plus dealing with a ridiculous amount of laundry.

H of course went skiing, up and at 'em and on the 6:30 bus.  It wasn't terribly crowded so he got a seat, reporting that it was snowing hard and the upper canyon road was sketchy after Snowbird.  After a slightly delayed opening, he had a great day (morning) of skiing, starting off Collins in Fred's Trees and then just skiing off the High Traverse for pretty much the whole time.  There wasn't much else open because patrol hadn't cleared slides yet, but the conditions were deep and soft and lots of fun.  He did try a run over at Sugarloaf but it was windier there and colder, so he went back to Collins, did a ten minute warm-up in the lodge for his hands and feet, and then kept skiing.  

By mid-morning they were posting that the canyon road would close for avalanche mitigation at 1:30.  He was sad to have to leave early but better that then potentially getting stuck up the canyon into the evening.  The snow was really stacking up on the upper road too, making the bus ride down rather more exciting than he would have liked.  The bus slid off the road a couple of times, but with its chains on managed to back up each time and get back on the road.  When they got to the left turn into Snowbird center, the bus driver didn't even attempt to go in and when they got down to the turn at Tanners Flat, the bus actually fishtailed.  Below that the snow tapered off, however, and the bottom bit was just wet.  H said that was the gnarliest bus ride in all our years of riding the ski bus - I think I'm glad I missed it.

The stormy weather did give H an impressive ice-mustache, occasioning several compliments, including  "You can grow a grizzly bear mustache and I can only grow a squirrel!"

an overcast weekend in the desert is better than no weekend in the desert

 We spent the last weekend of March down in Moab and while it wasn't the blue skies and balmy T I had hoped for, it was quite a lot better than what northern Utah got, which was rain and slush.  Down in the southeast corner of the state, it was mostly overcast but warm-ish (up to mid-60s occasionally) and with a few sprinkles of rain interspersed here and there.  It was also the final weekend of the 2024 Easter Jeep Safari and there was a definite uptick in tourists.

It's a little blurry (nighttime shot)

but this tree was spectacular

We did a little socializing, hanging out with our neighbor before she left for her Alaskan fishing season, and her roommate, before she relocated to Oregon for a new job.  We also went to Woody's with a friend - he went to high school in Moab and lives/works in town so going anywhere with him is like going out with a rockstar since everyone knows him; and we learned that our favorite bartender has left the Hoodoo for a different restaurant.  We'll track her down but we'll go back to the Hoodoo for its $2 PBRs.

These cacti turn purple in the winter,

to absorb more sunlight, so now that

they're green again, spring must be here

We also got out on the trails a couple of times.  Friday, H wanted to do a 10K trail run: we went to Moab Brand Trails so while he and Milton ran that loop, I hiked a shorter loop and finished up at the end with them.  The temperatures were perfect and the trails fairly empty.  On Saturday, H's knees were a little sore so we opted for just 3.5 miles.  I'm not sure the trail we picked - Moab Rim - was the best choice for knees since it's so steep, up and down, but it got us moving.  There was a Jeep Safari run there that morning so it was closed to other motorized traffic.  We saw a number of hikers, trail runners and dogs though.

First wildflower of the season

Sunday we just did a town walk before packing up and heading north.  It was one of our better spring drives, to be honest: the snow that was supposed to hit Soldier's Summit never materialized, so the road was clear and dry, and since it was Easter Sunday, there was hardly any traffic.  

i take back everything i said about "spring skiing"

I paid the piper for my solo ski day on Thursday by going in to work Saturday morning.  (I took Milton with me but probably shouldn't have, as there's something about my office building that stresses him out in a way that doesn't happen when H takes him to work.)  I did this because the Wasatch mountains were forecast to have some definite weather for the weekend and beyond, and I just don't love storm skiing like I used to.  In the valley, it was warm and windy with scattered showers until late afternoon when the front moved in.  Then we had rain and snain and snow cycling through over and over, with occasional three minute breaks of sunshine, from Saturday evening through Sunday evening.

H went skiing.

Moody Saturday

It wasn't too cold up at Alta on Saturday but it was windy and dark, with very flat light.  They had snow showers off and on but not too much in the way of accumulation.  But we knew they were going to get some, especially as the thunderstorm moved past us Saturday night and headed on up the canyons.

By Sunday morning, the resorts in the Cottonwood Canyons were reporting 12" overnight.  H didn't dillydally and made sure that he got the 6:30 a.m. ski bus.  They got to Alta about twenty-five minutes late, due to dodging other vehicles that had slid off the road, but that was way better than people who didn't get an early start: H talked to a guy who had driven up and it had taken him two hours from the Cottonwood Heights fire station on Wasatch Boulevard due to heavy traffic and slushy conditions.

Just a few tracks

Speaking of condtions, the snow was fantastic, deep and soft and while it wasn't light enough to be considered blower powder, H did get it puffing over his head in some deep pockets that he found.  Plus it kept snowing all day - "free refills."  And since the canyon road was snarled with vehicles, he didn't have to wait in line much, just doing deep lap after deep lap.  He started on the Sugarloaf chair, enjoying good runs down Chartreuse, and then over at the Supreme lift, doing Challenger, the former gullies, the trees off the cat track, Supreme Bowl, the Three Bears trees and one run into the beginning of Catherine's Area where there's a stand of trees we like.

This is that stand of trees we like.  

Look how deep!

Around 12:50, he hopped on the Sugarloaf lift, intending to go ski off the front side for a while (Fred's Trees were calling his name).  But at the top, Alta ski patrol was closing the EBT for avalanche control and the canyon road was closing 1:30 - 3:30 (also for avalanche control).  So he basically straightlined it back down to Alf's and through Sunnyside, then poled for all he was worth across the rope tow, ran to the locker room, threw his skis and poles in the locker, grabbed his boot bag and ran - still in his ski boots - for the 1:09 ski bus.  He was the last one on before the driver closed the doors, and then they just managed to pack the bus full and get out before they closed the canyon.  It was too bad because the snow was so good, but if he'd stayed and skied and taken a 3:30 or later bus, it was probable that he wouldn't have made it home before 5 p.m.

 

variable

 In my current, "I only want to ski when the sun shines" era, I had been eying the upcoming weekend forecast with trepidation: Saturday 19-30 F with 3-5 inches of snow, windy and possibility of thundersnow; Sunday high of 25 F with 1-3 inches.  That's not what I think of when I think of spring skiing.  So I checked my work schedule and was able to play hooky on Thursday, with the plan to work on Saturday so as not to burn a vacation day.  Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday would have been ideal, with Alta sporting warm temperatures and bluebird skies, but Thursday was what I was able to come up with.  The forecasts were all over the place but they all averaged out to fairly warm, snow showers either early or late but not much accumulation, possibly windy.

You don't have to have parking reservations Monday through Thursday, and since there wasn't supposed to be much snow I opted to drive up instead of taking the bus.  I invited H to join me but he had some work stuff he couldn't get out of.  So I slept in until 7 (!), got up and walked Milton, had avocado toast and coffee for breakfast and rolled on out in my little Subaru around 8:20 a.m.  It took me twenty minutes to get up there and they parked me in the second row, just five cars in.  Decadent!  I got the locker opened on the first try, chatted with some of the regular locals in the locker room and then headed up to ski.

It had just barely been sprinkling/spitting snow when I drove past Snowbird but by the time I was walking to the lift line at Collins, it had graduated to snowing.  Big, fat, wet flakes.  It was warm, which was good but also bad because neither my puffy jacket nor my ski pants are particularly waterproof.  By the time we got to the top of Collins, there was around an inch of new snow coating the frozen hardpack underneath.  I went straight to Supreme, got a chair to myself and it kept snowing harder.  As I neared the top of that lift, it was snowing so hard that you couldn't see the next lift tower.  Now I was anxious about driving home: if only I'd skied earlier in the week, or if only I'd taken the bus.  I decided to do two runs at each lift and then check the parking lot back at Wildcat base to see if the snow was sticking to the road.

Extra large photo so you can see the falling snowflakes

As it turns out, the roads were fine, warm enough that snow didn't stick at all.  And after about forty minutes of snowing hard, it stopped - and the weather just kept changing every ten or fifteen minutes, like it didn't know what to do.  Snow, then no precipitation and flat light, then the sun would come out enough that I was overdressed, then a little graupel squall, then back to dry with flat light, and so on.  The snow was variable as well: the top of Collins was bulletproof, then the middle bit was pretty nice, then coming down through Corkscrew you were skiing on frozen death cookies.

I left a little after 1 p.m., having done plenty of runs as there were so few people that I never had to wait in line.  When there were enough people to merit my going to the singles line, I skied right to the front of the line and filled a chair; otherwise I was able to ski right onto the chairs.  I felt like I was skiing better than last time too: I went at exactly the pace I wanted to and I wasn't anxious about other skiers.  The conditions might not have been what I had hoped for but it was still a really good day.

did someone say spring skiing?

 I had announced that I was going to ski Sunday and not Saturday.  H wasn't sure that was the best idea as Sunday's forecast had a few more clouds in it but I just wanted a break in the string of days where I had to get up at 5:30 a.m.  So off he went on Saturday: up at 5:30 for the 6:30 ski bus and on up to Alta where it was clear and bright blue skies, lovely warm sun, temperatures getting up to the low 40s, softening snow and lots of people.  The lift lines were long and the trails kind of crowded; quite a lot of terrain was closed for avalanche control after the wild and windy week we'd had.

Devil's Castle looms large

Meanwhile, down in the valley, Milton and I had a nice walk up through Dimple Dell, complete with a pause to watch some bison (!) exploring their new suburban pasture (the fence the people put in was massive).  Then, while Milton stayed out in our driveway (on a tie-out) to keep an eye on the neighbors, I cooked: making InstantPot black beans, then black bean soup, chocolate chip cookies and meal-prepping "sausage, egg and cheese" breakfast sandwiches for the freezer.  When H got home from skiing, we all decamped to the still-sunny driveway to enjoy the spring weather.

Pausing to enjoy the scenery

On Sunday, both of us were up at 5:30 for the 6:30 ski bus and on up to Alta.  Despite the forecast (the forecasts seem to have been less accurate this ski season), it was clear and bright blue skies, lovely warm sun, temperatures getting up to the high 30s - but seeming warmer because of the sun, softening snow and lnot nearly as many people.  Whether it was the not-so-nice forecast that kept folks away, or valley golfing or maybe pregaming for St. Patrick's Day, the lift lines were not too long.  It did get busier as the day wore on, but patrol opened Ballroom and the Backside, which took some pressure off some of the more-trafficked trails.  It was quite delighful, just the kind of day I had been hoping for up on the hill.

desert things

 Once the latest round of weather cleared out, we went to Moab for a long weekend.  Part of what we did was sad, because we said goodbye to two neighbors who are moving to Oregon for their next adventures.  We - including Milton! - will miss Natalie and Lauren and wish them very well.

Parking lot look-out

Part of what we did wasn't at all sad, however.  On Saturday, H did an eight (8!) mile trail run as part of his new trail running program.  In hindsight, that was probably a little long for his knees but at the time, he felt great.  We went to Moab Brand trails for the "event."  Since we know it so well, we figured he could do his run and Milton and I could do our regular Circle O loop and we'd all end up finished at the same time.  And that's exactly what we did.  Milt didn't like splitting up the herd at first, so I had to keep him on leash for a while.  It was a gorgeous day, mostly clear and sunny but cool - perfect for a long run.  H did great and that was the longest he's run since he ran cross-country in high school.

The boys in motion

On Sunday, even though H's knees were a little sore, we decided that a short (no more than four miles) hike would be a good idea, just to get things moving again.  We drove out to the upper Navajo Rocks trailhead and went out the jeep trail towards Wipe Out Hill.  The first part is on a smooth rocky shelf that goes along the red cliff walls.  Then it switches to sand but since it had rained Friday night as we were driving into town, the sand was still pretty well packed and easy to walk on.  

Warm enough for shorts, btw

We had intended to do an out-and-back, turning around once we got to two miles.  Just before the two-mile mark, however, we came to a wash.  We knew there was another 4x4 road to the south of us and H thought that if we walked the wash, we could cut across to that other road and not have to retrace our steps.  I love walking in washes.  You don't have to worry about footprints; you usually have it to yourself; and it's often more interesting than just stomping along a dirt road.  We did have to scramble under a couple of gnarled junipers but H was right and we came to the other road before too long.

In the wash

When we got back to the parking lot - which was busy-ish but not packed, with MTBers, trailrunners and hikers; we'd seen one side-by-side and one jeep out on the trail - we chatted with some folks while Milton made friends with their dogs: Summit, an eleven year old yellow lab; and also Hank, a tall, young border collie who kept trying to herd Milt.

504 and counting

 H hasn't had to shovel very much down at the house but that doesn't mean it hasn't been a good snow year: Alta hit 504 inches of snowfall on the year, with just over a month to go in the season.  That's a good snow year!  Here's a graphic comparing 2023-2024 (blue/this year) to 2021-2022 (green/two years ago) - way better, although that season did have a strong finish:

Of course, here's what this year looks like when compared to the ridiculous over-the-top-ness of 2022-2024 (green/last year), the likes of which we'll never see again:

in like a lion(-ish)

 On Friday, March 1st, H was already fretting by dinnertime.  The weather had been going on for days about the storm moving into the Cottonwood canyons: warm and windy Friday; colder, high winds, thunder-snow and heavy snowfall Saturday; not as windy but very cold and snowy Sunday.  Some sources were talking a potential for 42 inches of snow by the time it was over.  The fretting focused around the fact that high winds means lift holds, thundersnow means lift holds and so much snow means high avalanche danger and really messy roads.  I wasn't fretting.  None of that forecast sounded like anything I wanted to be involved with.

And boy was it windy!  It picked up Friday night, kept it up all through the night and was even worse come Saturday morning.  Like, shake the house / flip tractor-trailers on the interstate windy.  H reluctantly decided to not go up to Alta on Saturday - his first time being in the house on a Saturday morning since before ski season started in November.  I'm sure he was second guessing himself all day, especially since the precipitation part storm didn't show up until just after 2 p.m.  The winds dropped dramatically and it first graupeled, then hailed, then some thunder and lightning, before segueing to wet snow.  Powder Mountain hadn't bothered opening at all, citing the high winds.  The Cottonwood Canyons resorts opened, with some wind holds, until the lightning arrived ... and then they all shut things down.

Good sunrise from earlier in the week

Milton and I found it a little disconcerting to have H in the house but we didn't let him distract us.  We did a four mile walk in those strong winds - we had to dodge tumbleweeds flying down the street - and a nice lady told him he had "cute feet."  Then we did a quick run to Ocean Mart in Sandy for some specialty ingredients I needed for new recipes I want to try.  I could easily spend multiple hundreds of dollars there, there's so much I want to try: all the spices, condiments (chili-garlic sauces, banana ketchup, fermented bean curd, different vinegars and soy sauces), fresh fruits and vegetables, noodles and tofu, frozen buns and rolls and lumpia ... I got out of there with dark soy sauce, Shaoxing rice cooking wine, sesame paste, sambal oelek, tamarind paste, chili crisp, fresh shiitake mushrooms and long bok choy, extra firm tofu, a bamboo steamer and, my one impulse buy, Thai-spiced vegan jerky.  I love Ocean Mart.

Back home, I made vegetable broth from veggie scraps in the freezer, a vegan Nantucket cranberry pie dehydrated the shiitakes I didn't need right away, and made sesame noodles for dinner.  When the storm arrived, the streetlights all came on at 2 p.m. and we stood at the window, watching the snow come down.  It had been 63 F and sunny earlier in the week but March is now here and with a bit of a roar.

viva la divas

 Sunday ended up being a carbon copy of Saturday up Alta - even better, H reported, as it was sunnier and slightly warmer.  Ski patrol even got East Castle open, so literally the whole mountain was skiable (if you're able).  He had watched them doing avalanche control there and contemplated hiking in there but ended up getting bored of Supreme laps waiting for the rope to drop; by the time it was open, he was skiing at Collins and didn't go back.

I didn't ski Sunday, opting for a long walk with Milton, vacuuming, laundry and chocolate chip cookie baking instead.  That was only the morning, however.  By 1 p.m. I was cleaned up (boots with heels even!) and driving to downtown SLC.  I was meeting E and K and some of their friends at the Metro Music Hall (615 West 100 South) for a matinee showing of The Viva La Diva! Show.  The venue is on the far side of the Gateway area, with several other clubs nearby.  It isn't a location that I would want to frequent after dark but in the bright afternoon sunshine, it was fine and I followed a group of older women into the club.

Fun crew

E and K were waiting at the door for me and a couple other folks, and they swept us right down front to our seats.  The bar was open, with draft beer and cocktails available; after the show started, they had a system where you could open a tab with your credit card and then text drink orders to be delivered to your seat.  As the place filled up, E and K seemed to know every other person there and, as usual, all of their friends are both interesting and nice.

The show - my very first drag show - is a combination of comedy and different act lip-syncing.  The host/star, Jason CoZmo, is a world champion Dolly Parton impersonator; he also did Bette Midler and Lucille Ball at this show.  The performers are a fantastic array of people, all different genders/shapes/ethnicities: the acts included Neil Diamond, Madonna, Ceelo Green, Kenny Rogers and a Barbie ensemble.  The audience was super into it - singing, cheering, applauding, laughing - and after every act, we all got up and tipped the performers.  Jason Cozmo was especially fantastic: quick on his feet, funny as he roasted the audience viciously but always with an edge of humor.  The sole man in our group got called up on stage for a bit and did so well, playing off CoZmo, totally relaxed and game, that when he went back to his seat, he got his own tips!

Hello, "Dolly"!

By the end of it, my throat was sore from all the hooting and hollering.  CoZmo thanked everyone for coming, reiterated that despite the teasing, this was a safe space for everyone.  And it's true: you could feel the warmth and acceptance in the room.  It was a terrific first drag show for me, and a great show period.  And the fact that it was still light out when I got home made it even better.  Viva la diva!

a gorgeous day in lcc

 I realize that I have turned into one of "those" skiers.  You know, the ones who only want to ski on bluebird days, when it isn't too cold, the visibility is great and the snow is soft.  And Saturday totally enabled me to embrace that because it was clear, sunny, warm and Alta was just coming off a very nice storm cycle.  We still had to get up early and take the early bus, and then sit with our books in the Goldminer's Daughter cafe waiting for the lifts to open.  (By the way, why the HECK was the GMD cafe area so cold?  It was warmer in the hallway, where the door to outside is, and we were even sitting next to a little radiator.)  There were some demo tents set up at the Wildcat base area and you could just tell that the patio was going to be packed with people later on.

After riding up Collins, we went straight to Sugarloaf where it is sunnier first thing in the morning.  We did several runs there, including going over upper Cabin Hill to do a Cabin Run.  Things are pretty well tracked out and bumped up off-piste but the bumps were still soft and kind of chalky.  They had groomed out most of Razorback which was skiing quite nice - and a much different experience than when it is nothing but giant moguls.

Cabin Hill.  I wasn't overdressed

until the Catherine's run

We switched to Supreme for a bit, as it got busier and busier.  I requested a Catherine's Area run - where we paused to watch skiers much younger than us hucking themselves off some cliffs - and a Devil's Playground run (the gate at the bottom of Rock 'N Roll has both been moved and signed).  And we got to see one of the resident Alta porcupines, trundling along the edge of a trail and attracting quite a lot of fans.

When the singles lines at both Supreme and Sugarloaf stretched out far beyond the corrals, we moved to Collins, where the patio was full, the tunes were cranked and the lift lines were not so long.  Before noon ski patrol had opened the Baldy gates: there was a long line of skiers boot-packing their way up and so many people skiing the chutes.  I don't recall ever seeing so many skiers in Main Chute - just one after another - but also in Little Chute, Dogleg, Perla's and from the ridge between Perla's and the Rotors.  Despite all that open terrain, the most off-piste I got over there was a Ballroom run: soft and not life-threatening - perfect!