weekend weather

If you were at Alta this weekend, then you would know for certain that winter is here.  It was very cold on Saturday - around 3 F at the base to start, and below 0 at the summit - and the weather folks muffed it on the forecast; they said it would be sunny/partly cloudy and it was definitely all cloudy, all day.  I pretty much wore my warmest ensemble and still had to go in mid-morning to thaw my toes.  At one point, Martha (from Skier Services) told me to be careful about frostbite since I was getting some ice crystals building up on my face.  Never fear: I emerged unscathed.

I look cold, don't I?!!

The bus was standing room only for the ride up but not so crowded for the return trip; the lift lines were never that long because everyone seemed to be warming up in the lodges all day.  The snow was pretty firm since it was so cold and despite the little refresher storms we've been getting, everything was pretty much tracked out.  Although I really should have been seeking out some hiking or small bumps, we largely stuck to the groomers because there are still a lot of rocks out there.  I did do one run down Chartreuse Nose and managed to tag a rock on the backside of a bump.  Once I got two-thirds of the way down the coverage was better.  The most brutal part of the day was trying to get around the EBT when we decided to ski out: the wind was extremely strong and gusty, driving sharp snow into our faces, setting up big whalebacks on the cat track and generally stopping us in our track.  On the plus side, I was almost warm when we got around from working so hard.

Sunday was cloudy and cold too, with flat light and some cloud skiing in the morning, and while it was slightly warmer than Saturday had been, the increasing winds kept the wind chill pertinent.  The rising winds brought a storm in with them that would eventually drop around a foot of snow and generally wreck havoc with the drive home.  During the day, however, lift lines weren't much of a problem, again because people had to keep going inside to warm up.  H went into the trees by 3 Bears and found a bunch of rocks (our poor ski bases) but when we went into the bottom gate on Rock N Roll, the playground in there seemed well-covered and easy to ski.

In the trees off Rollercoaster

I had decided to bug out early to ensure a reasonable return home time; H, knowing that Wasatch Snow Forecast said that it was going to be a "last chair, best chair" day, decided to keep skiing.  At about 5 p.m., as he was waiting for the bus - that was delayed because no fewer than five cars slid off just trying to get out of Wildcat base to the canyon road - he texted me that I'd been smart to leave early.  Although it wasn't quite as epic a trip as Thursday, it still took him over three hours to get home.  He was pretty annoyed and with good reason, I thought: in the past, there has been a cop stationed at the entrance to the canyon on storm days, turning people away who try to go up without 4WD/snow tires/chains.  There wasn't anyone there on either Thursday or Sunday and thus there were folks up at the resorts in vehicles ill-equipped for the road conditions.  And that right there is why we are so appreciative of the ski buses - we like to leave the driving to them.