shredding

Alta got another fourteen inches overnight and Sunday morning it was still snowing.  The canyon road had been closed overnight so the UDOT plows and the avalanche guys could make it safe; with the road due to open at 8 a.m., we knew there would be a crazy line of traffic just waiting for the gates to go up.  H took an hour-earlier bus and it was still standing room only.  The difference here was that a police escort took the bus up to the front of the line so that they were only fifteen cars ahead of them at Gate B.  (Meanwhile, the line of waiting cars on 9400 South was backed up west of Highland Drive - several miles.)

They opened the canyon and the bus started rolling around 8:25; half an hour later, H got off at Wildcat Base to a full corral but a half empty parking lot.  It was colder and windier than it had been on Saturday and although it was still snowing, it was not coming down nearly as hard as it had been the day before.

Look at all that nice snow!

After the first four or five runs - mostly in Fred's Trees, as so much terrain was closed for avalanche danger (and would remain so for the whole day) - the line at Collins dispersed and H pretty much skied right onto the lift for the rest of the day.  The crowd had vanished - there were even empty tables at Alf's at lunch! - and this was particularly strange because at 10:30 the canyon road was closed again: a natural avalanche had slid across the road around White Pine and swept a car along with it.  The SUV's occupants weren't hurt but the road stayed closed until after 2:30 p.m., no doubt frustrating people in the valley who had hoped to come up.  That slide was two hundred feet across and covered the road to a depth of 2-3 feet.  I can't imagine how frightening that must have been for the people in that car.

Once again, H skied until closing, getting in some good runs on Chartreuse in the middle of the day.  He had worn his slightly wider Gunsmokes which had been great for the morning when he could find untracked snow, but which were a little more awkward once the conditions got choppy.  Still, he had no complaints, got down and back home over three hours earlier than he had Saturday ... and was asleep before 7 p.m.  That's a pretty good day right there.