penultimate 2018/2019

If you wanted to know what an iconic, stereotypical spring skiing day was, Saturday was it.  Cloudless skies, nice temperatures, bright sun, scant crowds ... and snow frozen up overnight to bulletproof conditions for the first hour.  Spring!

The Ballroom behind me, shining in the sun

With no edges to our skis, there wasn't any point to skiing early on the front side.  We (and everyone else who was up at Alta (which wasn't all that many, to be honest)) went to the Sugarloaf side, which is angled to catch the sun better.  It was still frozen to start, but was getting noticeably softer with every run until it was just perfect around 11:30 a.m.  Razorback in particular was fantastic: soft and creamy to carve through.

Around 12:30 p.m., just as H and I were finishing up our fries at Watson's, my brother texted me, saying he was halfway up the canyon in an Uber.  He had just come off a ten day/self-supported kayak trip through the Grand Canyon and was flying out Sunday morning.  After his buddies dropped him at our house, he grabbed the ski gear he had in our basement and came up for a few runs with us.  It's really nice for H to have someone to ski with who is as good as he is.  While I stuck to the mushy, sticky groomers, the two of them played around on the mountain, taking runs down Chartreuse, in Devil's Castle (which was fantastic, buffed smooth but soft enough to carve), along the High Traverse into the front side.

Between 2:30 and 3, however, the strong sun was making the snow very, very sticky.  We three had quick sandwiches and beers in the parking lot before piling into the truck to head home to Milton.  The penultimate day of the season was in the books - just one to go.