fantastic conditions

 The snowpack is just doing really well so far.  In the first week of January 2023 alone,  Alta got nearly three feet of snow, bringing the YTD season total to 332.5 inches!As the storm system moved out Saturday morning, we - including me, finally - knew we had to get out there.  Due to the ski bus service reductions, we were in line for the 7:12 a.m. bus, with quite a few others.  When the bus rolled up, it was already pretty full and the driver warned the waiting crowd that there was no way we were all getting on.  Both H and I were able to board, thankfully, and squished in among the crowd.  Then the bus drove about three-quarters of a mile to the end of the line of traffic, and we sat there until the police escort moved us to the front of the line.  Then we sat there for a while (and a dude next to me passed out momentarily until other passengers got him seated and fed him water and Skittles).  We finally got to Alta 2.5 hours after leaving the house, with the shuttle dropping us at Albion Lodge around 9 a.m.

Supreme selfie

There was almost no one else there.  I had to pick up my pass and there was only one guy ahead of me in line.  In the lodge, putting on my boots, the cafeteria workers milled about aimlessly with no customers.  When I got out to the Albion chair (Sunnyside is still under construction; H had gone up ahead of me while I got my pass), I didn't have to wait in line and got a chair to myself.  When I found H at Sugarloaf, we skied right onto the lift and that chair to ourselves as well.  And so it went, all morning, because everyone else was still stuck in a line of traffic trying to get up the canyon.  Around noon we skied over to the front side for a run there: there was a fairly substantial line at the Collins lift so we rode up and went back to Sugarloaf and Supreme where it was still relatively empty.  It wasn't until we were on our way out after 1 p.m. that there was any sort of line at those lifts - it was excellent.

The snow was excellent too.  The groomers (all I could really manage on my first-day legs) were super-soft with no scratchy bits; they were even so soft as to bump up a little as the day went on.  On the side of the trails and off-piste it was crazy deep - well over H's knees - and very soft.  I tried an off-pisted run and immediately got stuck when I wasn't going fast enough.  We haven't had conditions like this for years, it seems.  Just fantastic.  And the storms keep coming too.