opening day, 2017

Last year, Alta's opening day was delayed until Friday, December 2, because there was no snow at Thanksgiving (historically, they open the day before Thanksgiving).  Then there was an amazing snowstorm that just dropped a ton of snow and, in H's words, "[f]or an opening day, I'd say it was excellent.  This year, Alta's opening day was delayed until Saturday, December 2, because there was no snow.  The difference for 2017, however, is that there STILL isn't any snow: no natural and it's been so warm that the resorts can barely produce any man-made.  Not good.

Sparsely populated corral (note no snow 

on south-facing slopes)

Waiting and second in the singles line

I was on the fence as to whether I'd ski.  Typically, opening day is very busy, even when it's on a weekday.  This year, with it being on a Saturday, I thought it might be especially crowded with first-day folks, especially with the limited terrain.  Plus, I was pretty sure that it wasn't going to be any good [see above re no snow].  H was determined to go, however, because he has been waiting - impatiently - to be able to get on skis again.  I sent him off with the promise that he would take photos and text me anything I needed to know.

It doesn't look that bad - if you're an eastern skier

So while I did laundry, took a walk, changed the guest bed, cleaned bathrooms, made cookies and started up a batch of homemade limoncello, H drove up to Alta to get his opening day on.  At 8:30 a.m. he texted me: "Not crowded.  No snow."  It's a good thing that there weren't as many people there as on a more normal opening day because of the severely limited conditions: Alta is running two lifts - Collins and Sugarloaf - and there is one trail available for each.  There is so little natural snow that you can't even get to Alf's (which isn't open anyway) from the bottom of the Sugarloaf lift; and when you're done skiing the one trail on that side and want to get back to your car, you have to take the EBT around, doing your best to dodge all the rocks working their way through the frozen man-made snow.

Hardpack underfoot (and no snow on the south-facing slopes)

H was only able to do a marginal job of rock-dodging, bringing his skis home with quite a few dings and scrapes although luckily no core shots.  He lasted until 1:15 p.m., which was longer than I expected him to put up with the conditions, but which was long enough for him to note that lots of spring, summer and fall bicycling does not really put one's legs in skiing condition.  More skiing will put one's legs in skiing condition ... but we're going to need some snow for that.

But at least he's back on a chairlift