short but steep

Sunday found us with another six or so overnight inches up at Alta, but no morning canyon closure and no 4x4 restrictions.  So after we fought our way onto the 7:09 a.m. bus (almost literally as there were around ten people who couldn't squeeze on board), there were lots of vehicles headed up the canyon.  Traffic was moving freely, however, and we got up to Albion lodge (after having to wait a little bit for the shuttle bus) a little after 8.  There were already a lot of people there and we knew that there would be lift lines.

Supreme Bowl Sunday

There were lines but they moved pretty quickly and H and I actually got to ride together more often than not.  The snow was fantastic.  H kept diving in deeper and deeper, plundering untouched stashes in Supreme Bowl and its surrounds.  It kept on snowing too and the conditions were true powder, soft and light and dry.  It was a terrific couple of hours.

Steep and deep

And then word came out that they were going to close the canyon road for avalanche mitigation between 12:30 and 2:30.  When that happens, there is a huge line of traffic to get out once the canyon reopens and it can take hours.  When H skis by himself, that's only an inconvenience to him; with both of us skiing, that had potential to strand Milton for more hours than he's used to.  We bit the bullet and nabbed the last bus heading down before they closed - it was late showing up and we actually tried hitching a ride out before the bus finally showed up.  I felt badly because H was getting such good runs in; H felt badly because I'd spent one of my ten ski days on just a couple hours; Milton didn't feel badly at all because we got home early.