snowiest

 As of this writing (some time before posting, tbh), it is officially the snowiest season since Utah started keeping records in 1952: Alta has had 749 inches of snowfall and it's still snowing (it will never stop snowing, apparently).  Since the first snow on October 22, they've averaged 4.9" per day.  For those of you who aren't math fans, 749 inches is 62.4 feet.  It's settled, of course, and Alta's base depth is 210 inches, which is still 17.5 feet.  We'd better hope for a cool, slow spring because if we get 90s in May like we have had in recent years, we're all going to need a snorkel.

The latest storm brought Alta 51" of fresh snow over a period of just a few days and so there were multiple interlodge events, multiple canyon road closures and massive avalanches, both intentionally triggered and natural.  On Friday, they lifted the afternoon interlodge long enough to let the 1,500+ people who were crammed into the base area buildings out of the canyon and then re-closed the road at 10 p.m.  H went to bed that night hoping to be able to get up there but not particularly confident about it.

In the morning, UDOT said the Little Cottonwood Canyon road would open at 8:30.  By 6:42 a.m. H had a seat on the bus but they were being held at the park-and-ride.  At 7:17, the bus got a police escort to the base of the canyon, ahead of all the private vehicles already lined up.  At 7:30, they pushed the canyon opening back to 9:30.  By 9, both Brighton and Solitude reported that their parking lots were full.  At 9:18, they opened LCC and the bus started up, getting H to Albion Base around 10.  Alta then reported they were delaying their opening until 10:45 and H had a small panic when he overheard an employee say she'd heard they might not open at all.  But by 10:35, the "delayed opening" banner was off the Alta website and it was GAME ON.

There was a lot closed, of course, due to avalanche danger: Baldy, the Ballroom, Main Street, the Backside, the EBT, Devil's Castle, East Castle, Rock N' Roll, Supreme Bowl and Catherine's Area; the Supreme lift didn't open until the afternoon.  Even the rope tow was closed - they hadn't had a chance to dig out the rope - so it was a long, slow slog from Albion Basin to Wildcat base area.  You might ask, was it still worth it, with all the closures?  The answer, according to H, was a resounding yes.  He skied hard and everywhere was the same: ridiculous amounts of deep, soft snow.  Well worth the effort.

In non-skiing news, Milton and I took a long walk and I did a bunch of cooking again: blueberry muffins, chocolate chip cookies (which sadly did not turn out as I had expected), red lentil soup, spiced lentil tamale pie, InstantPot black beans and peach cobbler filling.  The laundry also got put away - all of it!  (Well worth the effort.)