that was a good day

Things at Alta were slightly warmer Sunday morning, which was great.  It was forecasted to be sunny, but when the clouds rolled in around the time of first chair, I was bummed that it looked to be a repeat of flat-light Saturday.  To be sure, the snow is decent - and certainly covers the rocks, which hasn't been the case in recent years - but we had really been hoping for some sunshine so that we could see what we were skiing (and also because it would be warmer).  As the morning wore on, however, the clouds broke up and we did end up having blue skies for much of the day.  Yay!

Cecret Saddle, full of snow

After a couple of initial Collins runs, I wanted to find some soft bumps; when it is cold, the best thing to do is get off the groomed trails because you work harder off-piste.  While H stayed on Collins, I went to Sugarloaf, which I really hadn't skied at all on Saturday.  I went to Razorback, which is usually good for bumps.  But it had been groomed out so I ducked into the gate and skied out through the trees below Cecret Lake.  I next went to Chartreuse/Chartreuse Nose where H caught up with me.  I thought that area was great and did it four times: the rocks are all covered and the bumps were mostly manageable and I had it mostly to myself.

Devil's Castle, full of snow

H and I skied together after lunch, moving over to Supreme and trying to find fun, funky stuff.  We did the 3 Bears trees, several runs in the trees through the high gate after they opened East Castle, Challenger, Catherine's Area (via the traverse across Supreme Bowl) and even one run down a Supreme Bowl chute.  It has been years since I've skied Supreme Bowl.  It is very steep and quite narrow in places, although H picked a wider chute for us; with so much snow, it is doable even for me.  Near the bottom we cut to skier's right and came out through the bottom of Catherine's Area, where the last pitch was as good as it has been all year.  With the rope dropped on East Castle, nearly the whole mountain - everything but Baldy Chutes - ended up being open.  That right there tells you the snow (and coverage) is good.

Supreme Bowl

We even had a hero moment when rescued a tourist's lost Ikon pass.  We saw this older man searching under the lift at the top of Supreme; on next run I spotted his ski pass down on the ground on Challenger so we picked it up.  When we got to bottom of lift to give the pass to Martha from skier services, the guy was actually there with her.  Total heroes!  (I think he should have at least bought us beers.)

We skied until around 3 then took the 3:30 bus down.  The ride down was slow, due to all the traffic (it seems like there is always lots of traffic any more).  Despite that slight inconvenience, this was one of the most fun days I've had skiing this year.  I think a big reason was the sunshine: being able to see what you ski makes a big difference.  Storm skiing is great but I'm jonesing for some bluebird days now.