world telemark day 2019

Despite my longing for bluebird ski days, the snow just keeps on coming in northern Utah.  (Not really complaining - not really - because the water is so desperately needed.)  A storm moved into the area in time to drop a few inches of new snow for Saturday, and then ended up sticking around through the weekend.  We have been dragging our heels on storm days lately since the traffic in Little Cottonwood Canyon is just so bad; sloppy roads plus heavy traffic volume makes for really long rides home.  But Saturday was World Telemark Day and we couldn't miss that, even with poor H fighting a cold!  Alta had tents set up with free telemark demos and from what we could see, people were definitely taking advantage of that opportunity.  H decided to go old school with his gear, leaving the NTN set-up at home in favor of his traditional 75 mm. bindings.

The bus was pretty full for the ride up to Alta and Goldminer's Daughter was crowded when we got there.  I think a lot of the people there must have been tourists, however, because it cleared out a little before 9 a.m. - and locals know that the lifts don't start loading until 9:15 a.m.  The corral filled up and we waited until the line started moving before we went out into the lightly-falling snow.  It was in the 20s, warmer than it has been, and would warm up to the low 30s at the bases by midday.

I'm not going to lie: it was crowded.  Part of the problem was that the Supreme lift had a delayed opening and so everyone was thronging around Collins, Sugarloaf and Wildcat.  Part of it was the new snow too, which was soft and creamy on top, covering some harder, scratchy sections in high traffic areas.  It took H a couple of runs to remember how to ski on the 75 mm. bindings: the pivot point is in a different spot on the boot, plus you can drop your knee much lower.  By the end of his second run, I thought he looked great, though.

What wasn't so great (for me) was the very flat light.  That top layer of new snow quickly got scraped off and clumped up and with the diminished visibility I was a little timid.  After several runs on the Collins side, I said that I was going to try Sugarloaf.  We decided to meet up at the bottom of the Sugarloaf lift at noon.  As soon as I dropped onto the Sugarloaf side, however, I regretted it.  In addition to the flat light, there were clouds hovering low, making the visibility even worse.  I swung by the Supreme chair, which had just opened, and the lines were massive, as big as I have ever seen.  Discouraged, I stuck with the Sugarloaf singles line, which was moving quickly enough at least.

Old school, baby

At noon, H and I found each other and quickly agreed that we'd had enough for the day.  The visibility seemed to  be getting worse, as was his cold.  We caught a 1 p.m. bus down the canyon and hunkered down at home for the afternoon.  And outside, it just kept snowing.  (Not complaining.  Not really.)