thin in spots

While I was getting my domesticity on, H went skiing.  After the hottest, driest August on record, the entire state of Utah was under some sort of drought.  That hasn't changed - in fact, has gotten worse - as the state's snowpack totals are way, way low: Alta, for example, has a base of 40" right now and it should have over 100".  Most of the state is in "exceptional drought" (the worst) with the best case scenario up in the very northern parts of the state still registering as "moderate drought."  We need us some snow.  There's slight hope for weak storms to come in Saturday and Monday but nothing to get excited about in the ten-day forecast.

Saturday view from Collins mid-station

That makes for bluebird days up on the hill.  H was up and ensconced in his parking space by 8:10 a.m. Saturday morning, reporting that there were a lot fewer cars than in the previous week.  By 9:30 he'd made his way over to the Sugarloaf chair, where the lift lines were full, and then Supreme at 10:30 a.m., also full.  One run later he'd fled back to Collins where the lines weren't as bad.  He stayed there, cruising groomers - so he wouldn't trash his skis on the off-piste rocks - until his last run at 12:40 p.m.

Now that's what I call a parking spot

His parking spot (8:10 a.m.) Sunday morning was about the best one could hope to get.  It was colder, at least until the sun came out.  The runs were still hard and fast and scratchy but he was at least able to talk with a couple of nice folks on the chairlift rides; Alta has adapted their COVID-preventing lift-loading strategies to allow two singles on one quad chair sitting as far apart as possible.  He rode with one girl who was an environmental studies student at the U and, later, with a different girl who was an environmental studies student at Colby College (in Waterville, Maine), taking a semester off due to the pandemic.

Never get tired of the view

He skied until 12:20 p.m. until he got chilled and then headed home.  He did see all the people poised atop Baldy: it opened for the first time and frankly, it looked better than I thought it would: