ahead of the storm

The storm we've all been waiting for was still hovering just out of Utah's reach on Saturday: it had delivered 4-6 feet to the Tahoe area (who has been as desperate for snow as Utah has) with still more in the tank.  Here, it was overcast with fairly mild temperatures - the "warm before the storm" - but increasing winds.  Not ideal skiing conditions by any means but gosh darn it, we were going to ski!  We rode the bus up to Alta and go to it.  It had been several days since any new snow so groomed conditions were pretty firm and anything off-piste was getting scoured down to hardpack from the wind.  Not ideal skiing conditions by any means.

We did several runs on the front side where it seemed a little more protected from the wind that was blasting across the Collins saddle.  The recent tuning on my skis was better but I still felt like the edges weren't holding like I was used to - which made me think that it was my skiing that had deteriorated with the uncomfortable boots, which got me grumpy.  I was also grumpy with all the lift line shenanigans ... apparently I just had my crankypants on.  We switched over to try Sugarloaf but it was clearly windier there - an empty 10:30 a.m. Sugarloaf lift line means the winds are bad - and moved on to Supreme after just one run.  The Supreme lift was very busy and the flat light made it more challenging to dodge both beginners and scraped-off spots on the runs.

I was so grumpy that I had had enough by noon, skiing out through Sunnyside to sit with my book and a beer until H came in after several more solo runs.  We caught the 1 p.m. bus back to the valley, then changed into jeans and drove to the Porcupine to celebrate our eight year and five month "move-iversary."  With veggie pizza and Full Suspension in my belly, I was grumpy no more.  Sometimes you just gotta quit while you're ahead.