Alta Sunday 12/9

[tirolerpeter]

Got up there around 10:30 AM today. Hey, that's what you do when you are retired, not on a schedule, and the "door to door" distance is 17.1 miles. The temperature was somewhere in the low 20's and my day started with periods of snow squalls. The parking lot was full so I ended up parking on the road up near Rustler and then took the surface lift to Collins. The Collins lift was pretty busy, but I got up top fairly quickly since I took the "singles" line. I finally got to use my new BD Verdicts in some stuff they were designed for. I LOVE them! Carving the chopped up powder is easy since they are so light on my feet. Alta has had around 40" of snow in the last 48 hours. While the powder hounds had attacked with vengeance yesterday, there was still plenty left to ski. Also, last night the Snow Gods had deigned to drop an additional 5" or so over the area.

Early on, I hooked up on a lift ride with a gentleman from Baltimore (sneaking in a little recreation while in SLC on business.) who was very well acquainted with Alta from numerous prior visits. He took me on a tour, and actually put us onto a number of fairly untracked powder stashes. After my first couple of runs the old legs started to loosen up and as a result of "chasing" my new friend I really started to enjoy the new sticks. We made numerous runs on the available open lifts. While there were some lift lines (good chance to rest) the trails were not too crowded, and there was plenty of still fluffy terrain available to ski; especially if you were willing to traverse away from the established trails a bit. My new friend had to leave around 2:30 but I talked him into a beer as a "thank you" for the tour and giving me someone to chase! The sun alternately hid and peaked out, and I took a couple of extra runs before heading home around 3:30. When I see how beautiful Alta looks when covered with nice soft snow glistening in the sun, I just grin from ear to ear, and congratulate myself for (not to mention thank my wife for going along with it) making the move to SLC.

[andyzee]

Good for you, this your first day out?

[tirolerpeter]

No Andy. I skied The Canyons on opening day the Friday after Thanksgiving, and also Snowbird on their opening day. Both places had only "man-made" snow and basically one trail down from the top. This was really my first day on natural snow, and more importantly, some real powder to dial in my new powder boards. So, that made it day #3. I am still busy painting parts of our new home in preparation for visitors (my kids from NY and San Diego) during Christmas week.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Excellent report..it's cool to end up skiing a couple hours with somebody you met on the lift. Over the years I've had dozens of improptu ski partners..mad steezy yo