Ski Bum Poet

It was a country club day in the canyon and I missed it. So it goes sometimes. I had every intention of skiing from around 10am until 2pm but on our way over we found out the Cottonwoods had closed down for avalanche control work from UDot. By the time we got up the road to the Peruvian, it was 2:30 and I had some things for work to do. So there I sat in the lobby of the lodge in my ski pants using their wireless Internet. My sister Sarah is here with Mike and Matt. Those guys and Danette got to get out even if it was only an hour and a half. Plenty of powder and the forecast is calling fr a couple more feet by Friday! Yep. Now it’s Alta.

Over and Out, Gary M

What a sneak attack! Last night we drove to the airport in SLC to pick up my sister Sarah. Her and two friends are staying at the Peruvian Lodge Tuesday and Wednesday night. Dang did they time it right. We were “suppose to get a few inches in the canyons but no biggie on your arrival,” I said. Yep. No biggie. Ha.

When we left Heber valley it was just starting to snow and roads were wet only (8pm). We picked them up and after grabbing a few Burritos, to go, we started back east over Parley’s Canyon. This is where the knuckles started to turn white. Once we got above the East Canyon exit ramp it was carnage. Semis stuck, two wheel drive cars flailing soon to be stuck as well, and poor bastards off in the median. Plows were no where to be seen. This sucker caught everyone off guard. The conditions deteriorated all the way to our house with the top of I-40 between Park City and Heber being the worst of it. We pulled in to our drive way at Timberlakes 12:30am. A regularly one hour drive took 2.5.

Here is the result in LCC (Alta’s snow report that just posted):

Current Conditions as of: Mon February 26th, 2007  at 05:30:00 AM

• Snowfall (Past 12 hrs): 13″
• Snowfall(Past 24 hrs): 19 “
• Snowfall this Season: 281″
• Sky Cover: Snowing
• Ridgetop Winds: Moderate W
• Mid Mountain Temp(°F): 11°
• Highway 210 Status: Temporary Closure: Estimated opening at 8:15 AM

Extended Forecast: Light snow expected today. A more potent storm will increase winds and bring heavier snow beginning Monday night. This storm will last into Tuesday. Storm total accumulations of up to 2 feet are possible through Wednesday.

This post is a day late, but better late then never. When I think back on Saturday, Feb 24th I’ll think of one thing and it won’t be powder or blue skies. It’ll be TRAFFIC. I have never seen the canyon as full of people and cars as it was yesterday. From what I understand, the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s office closed the road to Alta at Superior. Our little hamlet at the end of the road was packed to the gills. I’ve fought this notion for several years (ever since the dual pass between the Turd and Alta came into play crowds have been exploding), but now I’ve come to accept the harsh reality of the situation in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

The Alta many of us remember is gone forever. You know, the place where you could ski a bus run and hitch hike back to the lift with the first pickup truck that passed by. Or how about the place where on a Wednesday mid-week in February after a two foot dump you could still get a place to park half way back in the lot at noon. The terrain will always rule, the snow will always be the lightest; but the thing that has changed is that anytime there is a foot or more of snow, the Goldminer’s Daughter parking light at the Wildcat base is packed and over flowing.

Not to press this too much but here are some other points of interest in regards to the traffic situation on Saturday:

1. Traffic was backed up on the Exit 6 off ramp from I-215. I even heard at one point cars were lined up on the interstate waiting to get off Exit 6. The off ramp is about two miles from Big Cottonwood and around six miles from Little Cottonwood for those that aren’t familiar.
2. The other way into Little Cottonwood, via 94th South in Sandy, had traffic backed up four miles. Cars were stopped in line with skis on roof at the Smith’s grocery store on 9400 S and 2000 E.
3. I got on the road to head up at around 10:30 am and I was in a 15mph crawl the whole way up.
4. I left the canyon at 6pm and it took me over hour to make it to the mouth in a reverse order traffic snake from what I saw going up.

Now for the skiing report As you can imagine Collins was packed, so I took an inordinate amount of Ho laps off Wildcat. The Wildcat chair’s line was pretty much non-existent compared to Collins. I skied Keyholes and four runs to Powder Ridge and walked back to Wildcat. The powder was real nice and real deep. Although I didn’t get to my favorite terrain for the majority of my laps, I did get a couple of Highboys and a couple off Eddies. Also skied one run in West Rustler on the spine. So all in all, the skiing was pretty damn good but I wouldn’t sit in the traffic I sat in both ways for it again.

I pulled into Alta around 9:30am on Friday the 23rd. I took my time leaving yesterday morning. And the drive was slow as she goes. I-40 from Heber to Park City wasn’t too bad. Parley’s Summit wasn’t so bad, either. But when I hit I-215 in the Salt Lake Valley it slowed down big time. It was NUKING. Early morning commuter traffic was at a crawl so I jumped off on Wasatch Blvd and made my way slowly but surely to Big Cottonwood Canyon. Then, it was bumper to bumper going into Little Cottonwood from about Bengal Blvd on. There were Salt Lake County Sheriffs at the bottom of the canyon turning back anyone who didn’t have 4 wheel drive…just like they should be.

Now for the powder snow skiing report: Took a few laps off Highboy alone and then ran into Matt Tripp from the Alta Peruvian Lodge Bar. He’s running the show over there these past few years. He took over the bar manager job from me. He’s much on the same progression as I was in terms of my bar career in LCC. After a few years of long nights in that bar after long ski days, it gets hard. At any rate, we pretty much destroyed it for three straight hours on the hill. We couldn’t be faded. When I started skiing at 10am there were 8 or 9 inches new. When I left at 3pm we were closing in on two feet. Yep. YEP. Can’t say how bad I needed that storm ride. I was worked at the end of the day with wind burned face, but giddy like a 12 year old. I often say that a storm ride pow day in Alta is the only time I can act and feel like a kid for hours on end! Check out the Alta Pic of the Day for Friday, Feb 23rd!

Side Note: One cool thing was that Tripp said he would help me compile a list of local ski run names for Alta. His gang is a lot like mine. We have our own names for just about every area we ski in the boundaries (and beyond). Soon I plan to compile the ‘Alta local skier’s glossary of ski runs’ here on my rant platform, the SkiBumPoet blog. Keep an eye out for that…

Good ‘Ole Alta Peruvian Lodge Bar & Hippie Festival

Time for a good ‘ole Little Cottonwood Canyon pounding. It’s already started and I am getting ready to head out the door now. (5:36am). This is the first in a series of storms that are expected to impact Alta over the next week or so. The radar mosaic pictured here is a still screen capture of what I just pulled from NOAA’s National Weather Service (Radar Display Sites). You can see it’s socked in to start over Northern Utah, and the line up off the coast isn’t even visible yet. I want to see an unmerciful festival of snow carnage and wind over the next week! I’m prepared to stay in LCC. Bringin’ the laptop so I’ll be sure to post some updates. You can also watch the AltaCam Ski Forum for daily grind to stay on top of this cycle. Happy face shots everyone. It’s on…

Most active people have their outdoor apparel and gear of choice. You find what you like, what fits right, what’s durable and long-lasting; and as far as skiing and other winter sports, what keeps you warm and dry. I have had the fortune of trying out many different winter outerwear products over the course of my (so far) 1000 days of skiing in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, and without a doubt the best ski jacket I ever had was the Arcteryx Sidewinder AR Jacket. Period. No contest.

A consumer review for this classic ski jacket states:

This jacket is as good as it gets! I can only fault the pocket locations. No nonsense, top of-the-line ski clothing, worth the money if you’re gettin’ after it every day. Roomy, totally weatherproof.

Two sites where you can find killer deals on Arc’teryx:

GravityFed.com. This is one of the first sites I ever built and it first went online back in December of 1999. We have a gear outlet section and it features a HUGE list of discount and closeout Arcteryx products. There are tons of other content features on GravityFed as well. Check out the gear deal of the day from thaLowdown.com (left column). Also, there’s an entire outdoor gear outlet, too.

ArcteryxOutlet.com. This is a very organized and detailed outlet site that features everything from Arc’teryx. Base layers, ski jackets and just about the entire product line from one of the most durable and popular winter outerwear companies on the planet. I’ve been watching this site and you WILL find the best deals on Arcteryx anywhere online. Featured merchants on this site include Moosejaw.com and BackcountryOutlet.com…both class acts. Oh, and a classic Lee Cohen powder photo highlights every page.

About Arc’Teryx: Focused on innovation. They weren’t satisfied with incremental advancements, but on radical improvements. They began in Vancouver, BC, Canada, with climbing harnesses and then proceeded to tackle packs and apparel with the same obsession for creating the lightest, best performing, and highest quality outdoor products available anywhere in the world. Click their logo below to visit their official web site.

I come from New York state. We grew up in the town of Horseheads to be specific. Horseheads is centrally located on the Southern tier of the state near the border of Pennsylvania. When I was young, I remember 3 foot dumps, demolition derby sledding, snowmobiles, building jumps for our cross country skis, and even 10 foot wind drifts perfect for snow forts…you know, good ‘ole redneck stuff. But what I DO NOT remember are storms depositing 115 inches of snow in the time span of a week!! Well this is what areas of NY state in the lake effect bands got earlier this month.

I heard a couple of interesting tidbits as to why. For one, it was a very mild early winter. This unseasonably warm weather didn’t allow the great lakes to cool down the way they’re suppose to by February. Add the ingredient of arctic cold air moving over the water and the result was a serious lake effect snow machine. 9.5 feet in the Oswego County town of Parish, about 25 miles northeast of Syracuse. Oh yeah, Syracuse only got about a foot!! Thus the nature of the squalls fueled by balmy, great lake moisture.

This kind of reminds me of a special canyon here in the Wasatch range of Utah that gets relentlessly pounded from time to time. You know, to the tune of 28 inches when 4 was the prediction . I’ll let you figure out where this canyon is. Hint.

I found a great news piece in the San Francisco Chronicle about this record New York snow storm:

“The snow got even deeper Sunday but the end was in sight after a week-long series of squalls that have buried towns on one corner of Lake Ontario. By early Sunday, the persistent streams of squalls fueled by moisture from the lake had piled snow 115 inches deep at the Oswego County town of Parish…”

Click Here for Entire Article

Umm, Parish needs 1700 vertical feet of 35 degree ski terrain. Yep, have that installed and I’ll be there! BTW yes that’s a car in the photo above.

This year the Utah Avalanche Center (UAC) added a new distribution method for their daily advisories using MP3 files available from their web site. Click Here for the Web Audio Advisories. This adds MP3s to their already robust distribution techniques including email notifications and a toll free phone number. The podcasts are generally 3-6MB file sizes.

As you might have guessed, their primary concern is Avalanche safety in Utah. I’ve always liked the UAC’s mission statement which is “Our goal is to keep people on top of the Greatest Snow on Earth instead of being buried beneath it.” This crew does an amazing job of helping backcountry skiers stay safe in the ‘Greatest Snow on Earth’. Have you ever checked out all their site has to offer? It’s an incredible resource. Here are just a few things you’ll find at  UtahAvalancheCenter.com:

• Daily Avalanche Advisories & Warnings (the two main advisories I watch are the Wasatch Range and Western Uintas Advisories)
• Backcountry Avalanche List (Wasatch Range)
• Mountain Weather Forecasts (UAC Forecast)
• Avalanche Education & Awareness (Check out the Avalanche Encyclopedia)

This site offers much, much more. And if you’re out in the backcountry doing anything you should be sure and subscribe to the advisory podcast RSS feed . Know before you go!

Over and out, Gary M

OK time to get caught up. I mentioned a change in the air back on February 6th. By that I was referring to a much needed change over the western US, where a high pressure ridge sat and in fact strengthened over a 45 day period from around mid December through, well, now. Yep, I was a little early in my hopes for a change in the weather with that post, but it looks like were on a good storm track now. It’s been four days since I posted, so let me track back day-by-day and fill in the SBP blog:

Fri, Feb 16th – Well it was a dang good day. Not only was it my Father’s 57th birthday, it was a hero day on the hill. Blower pow was hard to come by. In fact, it was impossible to find! From what I understand, Thursday was the day of the week last week (I missed it) in terms of the fluff. Then, that night the wind machine turned on and big time. By the morning in line it was still whipping and also dumping easily an inch an hour while we waited for Collins to open. I was actually first chair, first time this year. The only lame thing about the wait was witnessing the behavior of some whining locals over some ski schoolers being let on ahead of the public. Please, cry at home over dinner…not in line. Ski school getting on first is just how it is so please deal with it a little better from now on. As far as the skiing: All I can say is BUTTER. My first three laps were 45 seconds descents of highboy. First lap was untracked. I made it in first even with my haggered Volkl Gotamas. That day I went in and had the boys at the P-Dawg Ski Shop mount my new pair. Yep, we’re closing in on our 100-inch base now, and that’s when Alta becomes a brand new ski hill with all new terrain presenting itself. Check out the Alta Photo of the Day for Feb 16th, 2007.

Sat, Feb 17th – Well I worked myself pretty hard on Friday and now that I look back I should have saved a little for Saturday. There were multiple terrain openings Saturday morning including Bad News, the Backside and Devil’s Castle and I missed every dang one. Why? Because I was laying in bed at 8am thinking about how sore I was from running bell-to-bell the day before. Plus it was the President’s day weekend and I wasn’t thrilled about dealing with the crowds. I ended up getting on the hill around 1pm after picking up my newly mounted skis from the shop. I ran them for almost three hours and loved it. They were fast. I’ve been waiting a long time for pair of new fat skis with Salomon 916s. I am locked and loaded for the rest of the season now! Alta Photo of the Day for Feb 17th, 2007.

Sun, Feb 18th – On Sunday Danette and I took it easy at home and enjoyed the sunny and warm day. It was actually a pretty productive day of cleaning out drains and doing other household chores that tend to get put off during ski season. But, that’s all I have to say about that . Alta Photo of the Day for Feb 18th, 2007.

Mon, Feb 19th – OK this was a true Little Cottonwood pounding and I missed it. I don’t have the best track record with hitting these storm rides this season. Much like Thursday the 15th…I should have been skiing. But I wasn’t, I was busting bum at home working on work. The long term plan is to get hosed on a few pow days in the short term, and own a house in Albion Basin, Little Cottonwood Canyon in the long term. Let’s hope it plays out that way. Ay any rate, Alta was on today. To wit, the Alta Ski Area Powder Alert: In the past 24 hours, Alta Ski Area has received: 14″ of new snow. SNOW ADVISORY THROUGH NOON. Steadier snow will taper off to snow flurries around noon, but areas favored by northwest flow could see snow flurries into the late afternoon.A potent system is expected to bring back snow Thursday night and Friday. As of the time of this posting, it’s been said and done and I’ll just say the end result was MUCH more than 14 inches (see what PowHound at AltaCam has to say about it). So she goes in LCC. Alta Photo of the Day for Feb 19th, 2007.

-

The weather folks are already predicting a “potent storm” for late in the week. I’ve already arranged a day off for Thursday and Friday. The snowpak is coming around and it’s time to get into it…maybe even scare myself a little.

OK things are starting to come around. I was a working junkaholic today so I didn’t get any powder, but I just talked to Johnny B and he said it was one of those surprise days when it piled up fluffy like we know if can in LCC. JB confirmed what the magnate told me early this morning…I talked to him around 8am and he said that it was going to be one of those days. Dangness! Can’t say I’m too disappointed today, though, because I got a TON of work done and therefore I’ll be getting mine early tomorrow morning first thing. If the road’s closing, I’m beating that closure. Period.

Just talked to Andy G. and it’s time to mount the new Gotamas. Pretty excited about that. It’s been tedious this season riding the haggered last year skis in all the hard and crappy snow. To wrap this up I thought I’d post the Alta Snow Report from bright and early this morning. It’s not a massive carnage dump but we’ll take it! See you hippies in the morning!

• In the past 24 hours, Alta Ski Area has received: 6″ of new snow
• The settled mid-mountain base is currently: 78″
• So far this season we’ve received 213″ of snow
• The extended weather forecast is: 1-4″ today, 2-5″ tonight, 3-6″ on Friday.

To subscribe to this list go to:
Alta Powalert: http://www.alta.com/pages/powalert.php