season in review 2020/2021

 It looks like the last time we did a ski season in review was 2018/2019: it was a good one, with visitors, interlodging and really good snow!  

Early December 

Last year got derailed: H had a really good week of skiing with some guys out from back east, then there was an epic interlodge, and then there was a pandemic which turned the world upside down.  

Lines at Wildcat base mid-January

This season, I didn't ski due to pandemic concerns and restrictions limiting the ski bus ridership and access to the ski lodges.  

The Purple Posse at Deer Valley (February)

H kept his pass, in no small part just to get out of the house since he started working from home in March 2020 and has scarcely left since then.  Unfortunately, it's been a frustrating ski season with low snow levels, long lift lines (due to not filling chairs for distancing concerns, plus a big uptick in skiers), doofuses not wearing masks, doofuses not understanding how a singles line works, limited parking and horrendous canyon traffic on the weekends.  

The Ballroom in March

Whenever we have gotten snow - including an even more epic interlodge session in February - it has been on weekends and that has added to the traffic issues.  Utah's population has increased by a million people over the last ten years - and they all seem to want to ski at Alta  (#stupidikonpass).

Early April

One of his favorite ski days was actually at Deer Valley, when he met up with our friend Ted, and a friend from back east and his son.  After working at home all year with no one to talk to but the dog, it was really nice to have someone to talk with on the lifts.  The fact that they were all good skiers helped too - although H crushed them all in the bumps.

Some dude, pounding a beer pre-Wiggle

At the time of posting, Alta's 2021/2022 season passes are about to go on sale.  The new management is ruffling the feathers of a lot of season passholders (us included) with limited benefits, new parking reservation requirements and what appears to be a lack of interest in anyone but IKON pass folks.  I missed skiing with H but I didn't miss being cold and dealing with the crowds.  H only skied seventeen days this year, which still makes the season passes cost-effective.  But I think we'll be having some in-depth conversations about the coming ski season over the next few weeks.

Closing weekend