not a last chair kind of day

We just had a feeling when we got up that Sunday wouldn't be a "ski to the last chair" day.  Although the ambient temperature was fairly mild, it remained overcast and windy the whole time we were up there and the snow just never softened.  This meant we stuck to the groomers (boring!).  As the day wore on, we kept jumping off the sides of the trails, hoping that it would be soft enough to venture further afield.  Alas, it was not to be.

The sun almost came out here

On the plus side, it wasn't that crowded.  Alta seemed to be mostly populated with tourists as the snow-snob locals only want to come out this time of year for (a) new snow or (b) bluebird spring conditions. (As you know, not being native Utahns means we'll go out and ski on almost anything.  A bad day of skiing is better than a good day of not skiing.)  In fact, it was so uncrowded that we got to ride quite a few chairlifts together - something that hasn't happened much all season.

By the afternoon, we spotted a fair number of brave/foolhardy people hiking into East Castle, but there was hardly anyone going into Devil's Castle, the Backside or West Rustler.  From the chair, we could hear some folks attempting Supreme Bowl; it sounded awful, all frozen hard and noisy. 

Even we had had enough of the conditions by 2 p.m. and caught the 2:30 bus out.  The sun was out a little more down in the valley and we spotted some fat robins in the tree in our front yard.  Spring is definitely coming - hopefully we'll get a few more snowstorms first.