Still catching up processing photos and videos of the 18-day ski trip to the west. Here's Alta:
12/21 - This was the 7th day of the dry weather. So naturally, the condition is hard pack. Thanks to the amazing early season snow. The base is deep (~60") and almost everything is open. As this was the first day back to Alta during the trip. We spent the morning touring the mountain looking for best snow. By late morning, we found it - the area between lone pine and santa clause. The wind brought the snow from the rest of the mountain here creating many powder pockets. In the afternoon, we pretty much lap here. The only draw back is high T was in bad condition this day. Many rocks to dodge and a short section for mandatory side steps. Still good skiing!
12/25 - Powder day! Christmas is not busy as usual. We even put our kids to ski schools to have more fun.
Have fresh track for 3 runs off sugarloaf. Then more fresh snow at the backside. As easy access stuff got tracked out. We move to end of the high T and found more snow. Alta is one of these places where you can find powder for most of the day if you are willing to traverse and hike. Absolutely loved it. Picked up the kids in the afternoon worrying they would be grumpy about not skiing with us. Big surprise. I leave that for you in the video.
12/26 - some overnight snow made this a mini powder day. Surprisingly, it was not crowded as i feared. Some crowds at Sunnyside, mostly beginning, upper mountain had no lines. Alta is a mountain that preserves the snow really well. We spend most of our time at supreme and katherine area, moved to High T in the afternoon, wrapped up the day at Keyhole for 2 runs. Keyhole surprising amount of powder left. I thought it is no longer a secret anymore. But it is still good.
1/5 - After a trip to big sky (more on that later). We came back to SLC. With one day left for Alta/Bird, we were really hoping to ski the Baldy Chute. So we didn't go during the powder day (LCC closed anyways) or the day after, choosing to go 2 days after the storm. Unfortunately the main chute didn't open. But we got to ski some lines we haven't skied before, Eddie's high nowhere, gunsight, spiny chute, etc... a lot of fun. Snow was really good despite the storm was 2 days ago. Comparatively, we skied Deer Valley a day ago which was the day after the storm. Alta had much better snow.
Burnt all 7 days at Alta/Snowbird. Will be back next year!
Here a short video. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/7H2o-hEBkDI
12/21 - This was the 7th day of the dry weather. So naturally, the condition is hard pack. Thanks to the amazing early season snow. The base is deep (~60") and almost everything is open. As this was the first day back to Alta during the trip. We spent the morning touring the mountain looking for best snow. By late morning, we found it - the area between lone pine and santa clause. The wind brought the snow from the rest of the mountain here creating many powder pockets. In the afternoon, we pretty much lap here. The only draw back is high T was in bad condition this day. Many rocks to dodge and a short section for mandatory side steps. Still good skiing!
12/25 - Powder day! Christmas is not busy as usual. We even put our kids to ski schools to have more fun.
Have fresh track for 3 runs off sugarloaf. Then more fresh snow at the backside. As easy access stuff got tracked out. We move to end of the high T and found more snow. Alta is one of these places where you can find powder for most of the day if you are willing to traverse and hike. Absolutely loved it. Picked up the kids in the afternoon worrying they would be grumpy about not skiing with us. Big surprise. I leave that for you in the video.12/26 - some overnight snow made this a mini powder day. Surprisingly, it was not crowded as i feared. Some crowds at Sunnyside, mostly beginning, upper mountain had no lines. Alta is a mountain that preserves the snow really well. We spend most of our time at supreme and katherine area, moved to High T in the afternoon, wrapped up the day at Keyhole for 2 runs. Keyhole surprising amount of powder left. I thought it is no longer a secret anymore. But it is still good.
1/5 - After a trip to big sky (more on that later). We came back to SLC. With one day left for Alta/Bird, we were really hoping to ski the Baldy Chute. So we didn't go during the powder day (LCC closed anyways) or the day after, choosing to go 2 days after the storm. Unfortunately the main chute didn't open. But we got to ski some lines we haven't skied before, Eddie's high nowhere, gunsight, spiny chute, etc... a lot of fun. Snow was really good despite the storm was 2 days ago. Comparatively, we skied Deer Valley a day ago which was the day after the storm. Alta had much better snow.
Burnt all 7 days at Alta/Snowbird. Will be back next year!
Here a short video. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/7H2o-hEBkDI
