spring is springing

Sunday: warmer and cloudier than Saturday, but also sunnier than we had expected.  The crowds were about the same although it did seem to take a while for the place to fill up.  On our first chairlift ride on Collins we rode with a kid who grew up in Salt Lake City (his dad is an Alta instructor) but who was currently enrolled at the University of New Hampshire and then on our next chair we rode with a kid from New Hampshire who was currently enrolled at Westminster College; because of the New Hampshire connection we talked with both of them about skiing Tuckerman's Ravine, which H has done (but not me).

Riding Collins chair in the morning

We ended up doing five runs on Collins where the snow was not as bullet-proof as it had been Saturday, Eastern-style but easy enough to ski.When we moved to Sugarloaf, one run was all it took before we had to get out of there due to the clueless crowds who had finally showed up.  We again stayed at Supreme for the majority of the day: it was busy there but the singles line moved quickly. The snow softened up much more quickly than it had Saturday although it was still after lunch before conditions off-piste and on No. 9 Express and Sleepy Hollow were any good.

After lunch we did a run in Catherine's Area, which was warm, soft, and slushy in spots.  On the plus side, my new Salomons do really well in the mashed potatoes-consistency snow: the skis' bigger shovel tip rides through the heavier snow well and doesn't get hung up so much as my narrower old Volkls.  We spotted the porcupine in the same area in lower Catherine's, napping in a different tree and completely unfazed/unaware of our interest in him.  We kept doing laps on Supreme for the afternoon and H did a different run each time, working from skier's right to skier's left: Challenger, then Erosion Gullies, then No. 9 Express, then the trees between No. 9 and Upper Sleepy Hollow, then Upper Sleepy Hollow, then Upper Big Dipper, then a couple of runs in the trees and the little bowl on skier's right of Upper Big Dipper.

Our last run on Supreme was at 3:15 p.m. because my legs were getting tired.  We skied over to Sugarloaf, scooted around the E.B.T. (which is definitely showing signs of losing snow in these very warm temperatures) and skied out to Wildcat base.  There were lots of folks sitting on the patio, apres-skiing despite the high thin cloud cover.  Alta plans to close for the season on the last weekend of April but if we don't get some more snow, it's going to be a challenge for them to hit that date.  We need snow!  And cooler temperatures!