Ski Bum Poet

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

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.

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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.

As soon as I got on the hill today I realized that yesterday was the day and I missed out! BUT…today was pretty dang good, too. And I made the most it. I even found some soft, deep, untracked turns. It cooled off quite a bit last night so that could have made for even fluffier untracked snow then what the gang had on Monday. But they had a lot more of it, especially early on. As she goes, there wasn’t much untracked left out in the open…but I can find it and I did find it today.

It’s looking up a little bit finally. We’re in the right pattern now. We just have to be patient for the big one(s). Alta.com is showing a 71″ inch base now and the weather should remain unsettled through the week. Check the Cottonwood Canyons Forecast daily for the best summary. Just now as I was typing this I faintly heard from the other room a local weather anchor say something about snow developing on Friday in the Salt Lake Valley. Eh? That sounds good to me.

So today I took a few runs with Darren Marshall and BJ Brewer early on. They were both working for Clif Bar for the day distributing samples around the ski area. I then met up with Rob ‘To The Wall or Not At All’ Rowley and Hardcore for a few, too. Those guys are a riot when they get to bickering on the lift! To end strong I paid the price (skied Highboy) three times solo. Found what I needed on the left side and in the Church. Over and out for now. Next ski bulletin should be Saturday, Feb 17th (maybe Friday).

We got the perfect 10%+ density snowfall we needed in Little Cottonwood Canyon this past weekend. It was literally like starting all over again with a November snowpack. It wasn’t a major Wasatch pounding by any means, but when said and done, we received over a foot of heavy snow that blew and filled in the cracks of our former 58″ base nicely. The snow started to get lighter as the day progressed, and at our house in Timberlakes it definitely cooled off last night. I won’t be making it over to LCC today, but the Alta Snow Report posted another 5 inches new since lifts closed yesterday. That new 5 inches should be blower, and with the foot of heavy snow underneath, those skiing will have a good day.

As far as our day on the 11th. The High Traverse that was treacherous on my report from the day before (Feb 10th Alta) was 90% improved. Most of the exposed rock was caked over by the high density snowfall. Made the trip to piss pass a little less demanding and the skiing out there was real nice. Buttery smooth, arching turns with an occasional blast in the face is what I found. I fired up my sniffer and poked around in a few places I knew would offer me run outs full of wind deposited snow…the kind of drifts I knew you could dig deep into. Danette destroyed the fall-line of High Boy with the grace and style she’s always had. I think we skied about 8 runs, from Fred’s Trees, to Highboy, The Nest and out to North Rustler. Didn’t get up into Eddies, though. Next time.

I’m passing on skiing today to get a bunch of work done and then I’ll be in Alta Tuesday morning for some web business. After my meeting I’ll be out for a bit. Til then…

Yesterday it was warm. Around 40 degrees. Groomers were soft and pretty fun, but most of the time there were a ton of people so you had to pick and choose when to open the throttle. Off-trail (Highboy) was pretty harsh. Well getting there was harsh, not necessarily High Rustler itself. The High T was bad as usual this year. It wasn’t frozen and you didn’t feel like you were going to slide for life all the way to the bottom of West Rustler, but it was dang rocky. Rode some old Volkl fat skis (white wizard exsplosivs) namely because they’re a little smaller than the Gotamas and in fact a lot more responsive then the haggered Gotamas I have mounted. I have a sparkly clean new pair but haven’t dared mount them up this season yet for obvious reasons.

Skied a handful of Groomers with Johnny B and Jesse. Johnny and I also paid the price twice on Highboy. When those guys left I had more of an itch so I went back and skied three more Highboy’s in a row solo. Last three runs I went into Windy Point and knocked some snow over the rocks. It was…ok. The best part about skiing yesterday was the workout. BUT Cottonwood Canyons’ snow report says 7 last night, 2-5 today and possible 7-11 tonight so we’re looking up.

I figured I’d add a category to document ski days to my SBP blog. The description in the WordPress admin I used for this category is ‘Personal diary of skiing days and observations’. Each time I ski-ride; whether it’s a skin up the hill from our cabin house in Timberlakes, a backcountry expedition or a day riding chair lifts, I always ALWAYS have reflection. I think back to my favorite run of the day, wildlife I see, details of the snowpak, where the wind blew, cool formations in the clouds, the cold snow-smoke swirling in the air…whatever. Moving forward I’m going to try and make the habit of coming home, sitting down with a nice authentic Margarita (my favorite is a silver Tequila with at least an ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice) and documenting my experience for the day.

I kinda started already in the Nature of The Turn post when I mention the carving madness that took place at Deer Valley. The majority of my dispatches, I’m sure, will be from ski days at Alta. I’ll have to share the posts here with my rants on the AltaCam skiing forum! If it’s a big pow day and I’m on the hill bell-to-bell, I may not get the post added until the next morning but that’s ok…no one’s reading my blog yet this winter, anyway (are you?). Oh and once the snow melts I am going to start the “Pedal Summaries” category as well. After pushing your body all day long it’s good to exercise the mind a little as well