Utah Snowbird 2016-2017, The Revenge Of Ullr...

[BobMc]

Change of plans only to encounter canyon shenanigans. I've got a buddy out from Michigan, he's been here a couple weeks and we had plans to head to Telluride this morning. We had a reservation for a place in Ridgway for tonight and planned on staying slopeside Sunday and Monday night. Snowbird was supposed to get 2-4 inches overnight. I woke up at 6:00 and looked out the window to see 4-5 inches on my lawn. A quick check of Snowbird's app showed 13 inches overnight and 20 in 24 hours.

We debated what to do for about a 1/2 hour, whether we wanted to drive 6 1/2 hours in a heavy snowstorm or just stay local. The forecast for the time we'd be gone looks quite tasty here which eventually swayed us to call and cancel our reservations and stay here.

We left the house at 7:40 and headed out. The roads down in the valley were quite treacherous, we watched a guy do a 360 on 215 at about 50 mph. Luckily he righted the ship and carried on. When we got off the highway onto Wasatch Blvd. the roads were even worse, people were having trouble getting up the little hill just off the highway. The left hand turn lane into the BCC was backed way the hell up, we were happy to not be attempting to travel up there. That happiness was short lived when we encountered stiff traffic getting up the LCC. The canyon was in one of the worst shapes I've seen. Everyone was slipping and sliding getting up, there were a few idiots in fwd vehicles with no chains really gumming things up. I have no idea why there was no UPD officer checking for 4wd or chains.

We finally pulled into a parking spot at 10:12, luckily by then the three boat line up was gone and we found a one boat wait. Regulator and mid Cirque were the only ways down from the tram, we hit up Glens first run. OMG, it was definitely the deepest snow I've skied all year and possibly in a couple years. It was almost too much, you'd stall on any hard turns. The entire day was a replay of that, it snowed like the dickens all day, the snow piled up. Their latest report shows 25 inches in 24 hours. Wow.

They closed the road at 1:45, it was announced and we decided to tough it out. We ended up skiing till 3 and they opened the canyon at 3:30. We had to dig out around our parking spot in order to back out, it truly was an epic day. The ride down really wasn't too bad, there was some clearing in the valley and the snow started to slow. It took us an hour to get down, a lot better than the ride up.

Morning report



Didn't get many action pics today, the heavy snowfall made it tough.



Our vehicle at the end of the day.



Standing behind our vehicle in the lot.



Tomorrow looks to be good and Monday should be full on storm riding, work will have wait till Tuesday.

 

[givethepigeye]

I was next door - went up zero dark thirty - was in the lot by 7, it was deep, very deep.

 

[BobMc]

Breezy! Today was a replay of yesterday trying to get up the canyon, a 6:00 to 8:00 canyon closure was the stopper today. We briefly considered getting up early and beating the closure but after a few glasses of wine I decided sleeping was the better option. The canyon road was in good shape but the mass of cars heading up slowed everything down. It wasn't quite as bad as yesterday, we left about fifteen minutes later today and got there about a half hour earlier, which was 9:45. The lots were much fuller today we initially were going for a spot down by Gad but nothing I was willing to walk from was available. We cruised the bypass road and found nothing, but luckily they were allowing parking on top of the half finished condos below the bypass.

We opted for a Peruvian ride to begin as we could see the tram line going around the building. About a third of the way up we were hit with the theme for the day, stiff winds. The wind was kicking and moving a lot of snow around on the mountain, there was a lot of vertigo and times where you couldn't tell if you were moving.

The hill felt pretty crowded as Mineral never opened and the tram shut down for the day around 11. The wind provided free refills but also changed the topography and there were features to buck you around a bit. The crowded feel and longer lines than I like caused us to leave about 12:30, the Packers playing also played into the decision a bit and in retrospect I wish we'd have toughed it out and stayed.

Tomorrow looks to be pretty epic as these stiff winds will smooth everything out and a fresh layer should be laid down overnight with another day of storm riding teed up.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Bob, I was up there Sunday. Tried to go up again today, Monday 1/23/17 but road closed until at least 1PM. I believe no skiing allowed either (interlodge). so, Taking unexpected rest day. Try again tomorrow.
Pics from 1/22/17 Snowbird:
Trying to avoid road closures went up at 545am on Sunday and killed time in Cliff Lodge hot tub until lifts started running.

A friend of my son's hung with me and showed me a good time, this is Mr. M:

Quite windy on upper mtn, but amazing snow, believe they've had 2-3 feet since Friday. This is Lower Cirque, low vis day.

If you went down you could be in snow up to your neck:

 

[BobMc]

The best laid plans... Last Friday I'd told folks at my work I was headed to Telluride and wouldn't be back till Wednesday. Saturday morning we changed plans and stayed here, since I had already told them to not expect me today I took advantage of the day off and made plans for Snowbird.

We got up early and checked the snow totals, forecast and road. They claimed 7 inches at 5:50, the road was closed and expected to open at 9:00, they had 11-16 inches forecasted for the day. I had a friend in the road line up and he said they were claiming at 10:00 opening. We headed up about 9:00 and figured we'd time it right to not have to sit in the line-up. Well, time it right we did, we arrived just as everyone started heading backwards as it was announced control efforts in the canyon were going big and they'd had numerous slides that hit the road. Clean up was gonna push back the opening to 1:00.

My buddy and I went back and forth about what to do, I wanted to chill out and wait till one and head up for what is to me free skiing. He wanted to head up to Brighton or Solitude. I originally relented and told him we'd drive up and see how it looked. It was raining at the base of the canyon but soon turned to snow, and soon to hard snow.

We arrived at Solitude and found the lot half full. It was dumping profusely and the snow was piling up in the lot quickly. I'm pretty glad I listened to my buddy, it was probably a top 25 day of my life. There was 9 inches overnight and at least a foot today. There were no crowds or competition for the powder. The Summit lift was the only place that got tracked out, for some reason it wasn't snowing much up there, the snow was concentrated on the Western side of the resort. Eagle and Powderhorn were over the head blower all day long. We skied till 4:00, Honeycomb never opened and stuff was still filling in at last chair.

The LCC never opened for up traffic, they opened the road from 1:00 to 3:00 for only down traffic. I had a couple friends that beat the road closure today only to be skunked and sit in interlodge all day. To be sure Snowbird and Alta will be off the hook tomorrow, if they get the road open. I'm debating another day off work and then debating another attempt at a Telluride trip later this week.

 

[BobMc]

Sneaky powder day! Last weekend high pressure invaded so I took the time off from pow and headed to Telluride. Today was my first day back to see how filled in everything got over the last bit of the previous storm. Wow, the 100 inch mark certainly changes things around, pretty much everything is fairly easily skiable. The entrances and traverses are all in fat shape.

I got up at 6:00 and checked the snow report. The snow stake camera showed a lot more snow than the advertised 3 inches on the app. We arrived at the tram plaza about 8:35 and ended up on second tram. It seems any report of snow brings out the valley folks, you've gotta get there before the ticket office opens at 8:30 lately to have any chance of first tram when it snows even a little bit. Even though we were on second tram we still found the mid Cirque to be untracked and hit up faceshots in the "3 inches." Anderson's was much the same and started a trend of untracked snow for the day. We went back up top and opted for a Mineral run, finding much deeper snow back there than on the frontside we decided to risk another run through the increasing line.

The risk was worth it, although the line did indeed grow we caught at least a foot of untracked all the way out the Sunday Cliffs. The snow was much lighter out there than it was in Powder Paradise. We headed back up Mineral and decided to lap Little Cloud until the Road to Provo opened, it wasn't long. They pulled the gate just after we boarded Little Cloud on one of our laps, even though we saw another tram load of folks get off we still found our own lines.

Tomorrow should be much the same, we didn't encounter much crispness today.

Morning snow cam view.




Great Scott is like a cakewalk, easiest entrance I've ever seen.






Anderson's was delicious first thing.




Scenery.

 

[BobMc]

Calm before the storm. Today was a nice calm day, the sun came through now and then to help with the flat light. I got up early and checked the reports to find what I figured, no new snow and a forecast of partly cloudy. For some reason there was traffic stacked up low in the canyon like it was a powder day, the traffic spread out soon afterwards and it was smooth sailing. The Zoom lot was pretty full at 8:30 because of the races being held down there, the bypass road was noticeably less busier than yesterday.

I'd made plans to meet up with Mpskier from Epic, I waited a few for a buddy to get to the bypass and headed up the tram. Once atop I got ahold of Mpskier (eventually, cell coverage is spotty on-mountain) and waited for him at the top of Mineral. I had a good time skiing with him, his wife Rachel and their nephew. We took a spin out Hoops and a run down the Bananas trees. They opted for a stop in the Summit and we carried on, a few more runs down Hoops and a Cirque run and I headed to the car to eat a sandwich and then head down for the football festivities.

The next couple days look to be pretty stormy, the hose continues to be on.

Unexpected hazards can be encountered.



Eye of the Needle viewed from the Cirque.




Trunk lunch/picnic




Just got done making a salted caramel chocolate pie, it should go well after the wings and quesadillas I have teed up.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Have you done Eye of the Needle this season Bob? As you say, the whole mtn is skiing pretty fat these days. Something tells me it's even hairier than it looks. How do you get there, Baldy traverse way, way over?

 

[BobMc]

Howdy Jim, I've done it a couple times, it's a lot fatter right now. There's usually a rock in the choke, but that stuff is long gone. You can get there from the mid Baldy traverse, or of course from the top of Baldy. If you don't feel like hiking, get off Peruvian and keep working skiers right, eventually you will reach a gate that leads off to the right. It'll empty out onto a big meadow, work to the right side of the meadow (Mort's Meadow) and you'll be atop the Eye of the Needle.

The area to the right of the Eye is known as Palm Springs and usually skis better than the Eye.

 

[BobMc]

Goat rodeo! A surprise canyon closure made things a bit hectic today. The announcement came at 4:37 this morning, not giving enough time for employees to get up there early. They opened the road a bit before 8:00 but by then traffic was backed up in the usual fashion. I still managed to get to the lot by 9:07, just in time to watch the bypass road fill up. A friend of mine left a bit earlier and hung out in the park and ride lot till the road opened, he got to the tram line at 8:25 and was on third boat. Obviously all the beds are full up there.

With the surprise canyon closure the lifts were slow to open. Zoom was delayed till after 11:00, leaving a mass of people waiting on Mid Gad. Once we finally boarded Mid Gad it stopped for about 10 minutes, at that point we started to realize it just wasn't our day. We headed over to Peruvian and found a huge line there and what looked to be a triple maze around the building going on with the tram.

The snow was great today, 12 inches overnight insured that, but all the standing around was disheartening. We decided to call it a day and got to the car at 1:00 after making three runs. Yeah, three runs. Granted, they were pretty damn good, but the crowds got the best of me.

Hopefully tomorrow won't have the powder fever and the crowds will be a bit less fierce, but, I doubt it.

Morning red snake.




First run of the day.





Couple of Travis out near Sign Line Gully.






Tram going across the Cirque from Sign Line.

 

[BobMc]

The calm after the storm. Traffic was much better today, I never encountered much of a delay. I left my house at 7:40 and made it to the bypass by 8:10. The lots were still empty, as I've said over and over, the new snow drives the crowds. I'm almost to the point where I'd rather it didn't snow if it means I don't have to sit in hours worth of traffic and hunt around for a parking spot.

Iceman from TGR was in town and I'd had plans to meet him and Skifishbum up there. We ended up on second tram, once atop we waited another tram for SFB and hit up the hadn't been opened Powder Paradise. By the time we got out there it was pretty chewed but still soft, enjoyable turns down to the Baldy lift. We were hoping for a Ski Patrol Gully opening and went by the gate to no dice. We went a bit lower and chilled at the baldy birdfeeder for a few and were rewarded with a gate opened right in front of us on the lower part ski patrol gully.

While riding the Mineral lift we were treated to a display of explosive charges out along the Bookends. A few charges out by the Altar were followed up from some blasts of the ridgeline. By the time they were done there weren't too many clean lines left and we decided the amount of people waiting by the gate and the building line wouldn't warrant the beat out lines we'd encounter once we got there. We decided to keep with my 10:30 rule and get out of there.

The Road to Provo had opened late yesterday and was still featuring some decent turns today. We took several laps out Hoops and found nice lines of velvet mixed in with mogul lines. A quick eye could find you smooth lines, the wind had mixed it up a bit.

A lap through Great Scott ended the day at 1:00, it was a bit crispy at the top but easy to find the velvet a few turns in.

Fracture lines above Powder Paradise, lotta avy debris





Big blocks of debris below Hoops.

 

[BobMc]

Another sneaky powder day! I checked the report at 6:00 and found 2 inches overnight. It wasn't supposed to snow much today and being as it's President's Day weekend I figured it'd be busy and dust on crust. We headed up a bit earlier today expecting larger crowds. We got to the tram line about 8:25 and found ourselves easily on first tram. We didn't have to wait long either, they let us up early with an 8:45 first tram.

We skied a Regulator first run and found it to be a bit dusty on crusty, about 3-4 inches on a firm base. After that we headed up Little Cloud and proceeded to lap Hoops many times. Over there we found the snow a bit deeper and untracked conditions all morning. It was a bit tough to see going out there and that kept the people from finding our rather large stash. The visibility was pretty tough up high, it improved a bit down about 500-700 feet. It was kind of a strange day, usually we're all over the mountain, but today we hit two areas all day. After our Hoops session we headed out the Cirque and found deeper snow around tower three. We lapped that area numerous times before calling it a day at 1:30.

I was really surprised on how uncrowded it was, we walked on to Little Cloud and the tram the whole time we were there. It was snowing fairly good when we left at 2:00, I'm guessing with the forecast that tomorrow will be a lot more crowded.

Couple with the flat light out Hoops.







Tower three



Tower three from Andersons.

 

[BobMc]

Ho hum, just another powder day. I got up extra early this morning to pull a pork shoulder out of brining, rub it down and throw it in the oven at 225 degrees. Before doing all that I checked the report and found three inches overnight. The view of the snowcam once again showed that three inches may have been an underestimate. I left the house a bit earlier than usual expecting heavier crowds, I got to the bypass at 7:35 and was surprised to find I was the second car there. I dawdled at the car a bit and got to the plaza around 8:00, easily getting in line for the first boat of the day. Most days you can be assured of close to first tram as long as you join line up before the ticket office opens, this usually happens at 8:30. Of course this necessitates tickets bought in advance or a pass.

As expected the 3 inch claim was off by at least another 3-5 inches. We hit up lines off the Cirque Traverse that provided face shots from the get go. It snowed pretty heavily most of the morning and the crowds grew. The tram line went around the building into the side door around 11:00, that's usually my cue to move to chairs. Pro tip, coming in from Black Jack can give you a view of the tram line before you commit to Peruvian or the tram. You can see the East side of the building and whether the line is coming in through the regular door or the side door. If you see people lined up on the East side they're coming in through the side door and it's at least a three boat wait. No people, probably a two boat wait at most.

Powder Paradise and the Road to Provo were closed all morning, add to that a soupy Mineral and most people were on the front side and cramped a bit. The trails were a bit busy but if you didn't mind not being able to see you could find solace. The Cirque remained money all morning and was where we concentrated our efforts. Being it was the non-skiing wife's birthday today I left at noon to get home and check up on my shoulder as well as start the preparations for the rest of my birthday meal I was making for her. (I also cleaned the house while she took the kids to the movies, scoring points.)

Getting some nice turns on BlackJack





The holidays always provide tourist shenanigans. Came back to the car to find someone in the row ahead of us was going to need a bit of towing at the end of their day. Yes, that's their LR tire five inches in the air.



Video I shot of Travis on Glen's.

 

[BobMc]

Whew, today was interesting. I left my house at 7:20 with an expected LCC opening at 8:00. I figured I'd get there close to opening and hopefully breeze right on up. Well, as they say, the best laid plans... I hit traffic soon after going up the hill past 7-11 at 8:15. I sat there for about 45 minutes before the line starting moving, I hit the last merge where 9400 S comes in right at the park and ride at 10:00. There were two UPD cruisers sitting on either side of the up road, just as I let the vehicle from 9400 S zipper ahead of me on of the cruisers pulls into my lane and blocks me. Apparently a slide hit the road and they shut the canyon down again. I had a friend ahead about the vaults and he got turned around as well. I had another friend that was about 20 minutes ahead of me and made it up to Alta, his day was all time, country clubbing it.

I pulled into the park and ride and thought about waiting it out, but then decided to head up to Solitude. I headed over to the Big and was about to make the right into the canyon when they shut down the Big as well. I sat there for another hour before they finally opened up the Big. I eventually pulled into the Solitude lot at 12:15, I'd spent almost 5 hours in my car, heh. On the bright side I was able to buy a half day ticket to Solitude for $67.

All the waiting and sitting in the car was totally worth it. It was definitely a quality over quantity type of day. Once I was in the lot I called Skifishbum aka Dibs and hooked up with him. We ended up making two laps on East facing Honeycomb, going all the way out to No Man's Land. It was deep beyond belief, face shots on every turn. By then the storm had passed as well and the visibility was great.

Tomorrow should be great as well, not much accumulation is forecasted for the weekend so hopefully they'll have the canyon situation cleared out. Mineral never opened, nor Road to Provo, so there should be plenty to plunder at Snowbird tomorrow.

At this time I thought I'd be skiing pow at Snowbird.




I pulled into the Solitude lot at 12:15.





Lotta sidesteps to get to here.




It was so tasty we hit that stuff "two times."



I followed this guy down and was hoping he didn't start his journey with his skis on top.

 

[BobMc]

Back to sunshine. I woke up at 6:00 yesterday morning, took a shower and saw that the road closure was in effect again. I knew it was closing but seeing it disheartened me to the point where after spending almost 5 hours in my car the morning prior I just couldn't do it. I rarely miss non working days but I didn't have it in me to fight the cars and crowds. I heard it was quite the junk show yesterday, plenty of canyon line up and traffic and lift lines.

I got up early today and made it to Wasatch Blvd by 8:00, I hit traffic just before the turn off to La Caille. It was bumper to bumper for most of the canyon, slow going. Thankfully even after getting to the tram plaza at just after 8:30 I still made first tram, which left early again. The snow is still fantastic, a bit set up but still plenty of softness. The groomers are silky soft with not a hint of hardness to be found. Most of the first tram dumped off into Mineral so I headed to the Cirque, it was me and one other guy on the way out there. We'd gotten an inch last night and it provided just enough softness to quiet things nicely. I love the mornings, he dropped early and I made my way down to Glen's with not a soul around me. The ridgeline of the Cirque is buffed nicely, the normally large bumps have been tamed by the massive base we have.

It was pretty quiet this morning crowd wise until about noon, I walked onto trams most of the morning. The tram line built up at 12:30 and it went to the side door, that's usually my cue to call it quits. I ate a sandwich in the lot and I'm sure made someone's day when I relinquished my parking spot on the bypass.

On my way down I picked up a hitchhiker. I texted a couple of my non-skiing friends and told them to imagine going to a Jazz (or Packers) game and leaving and seeing Rudy Gobert (or Aaron Rodgers) on the corner of the stadium with their thumb out. That's how it felt when I gave Angel Collinson a ride down the canyon. She's a real sweetie and it was fun chatting with her down the canyon.

All alone first out.




They've been using a lot of these lately.




The bypass viewed from the condo line.

 

[BobMc]

Powder day! Kinda... Today was not at all what I expected, I went to bed figuring it'd be about 50 tomorrow and blue skies. They had the close to 50 right, at least early, the blue skies never came till the afternoon. For most of the morning it was high clouds and HIGH winds. The tram and Mineral never opened, the winds were kicking and in the direction to knock it into towers. We got there early enough to be on first tram, but while heading down there I noticed a regular walking over to Peruvian, I knew if he was over at Peruvian the tram wasn't running. They usually have a banner/sign up telling you the tram is closed, but it wasn't out yet. We ended up on about 5th chair on Peruvian.

The winds weren't too bad at the base, but once up a bit we were buffeted, luckily it wasn't too cold or it would've been uncomfortable all day. While riding the lift I was expecting frozen coral reef, there were a lot of sastrugi out and about. But, when we got off the lift I was amazed to find it was actually pretty soft. As usual the secret of the day was to find the tongues of wind buff. We hit up Primrose first off and found great snow, wind buffed softness, Anderson's was much the same, not a hint of hardness. We decided to head over to the Gad area and see if there was less wind over there. Heading up Zoomer we decided to go over to Gad 2 and take a spin down the backside to Little Cloud and see how the snow was.

The backside over to the Bass Benches was fantastic, so much so that we decided to bear the winds of a Little Cloud ride. Little Cloud was kicking indeed, skis acting as sails, but the runs out Hoops were enough to keep us coming back for more. We lapped that area till about noon, catching fresh wind blown lines each time. My buddy Travis was skiing on a pair of sentimental to him boards today, a pair of skis from a friend that died early of cancer, they were a pair of 90's era straight skis mounted with rotafellas. He did an admirable job skiing on those old school skis, but while coming in hot from the upper Knucklehead traverse into Hoops pocket he booted out, spun around and slid the entire face of Hoops. It was pretty impressive, heh, I was worried he'd messed himself up pretty good but he bounced up and cleared the snow from all orifices.

We lapped Peruvian till we ended the day at 2:00, my buddy Mike kept on and hiked up Chips Ahoy above the Peruvian lift to do a High Baldy. He said after hiking up Chips Ahoy the rest of the Baldy hike seemed rather flat, lol. Mike and I hung at the bypass till 4:00, the scene was pretty festive today, the wind died down and with the sun it was almost a spring like day. It looks like a shot of snow tomorrow and then a big impulse tomorrow night into Monday. I wish I could take Monday off but it probably won't happen.

Instagram video of Travis in Sign Line Gully


Myself skiing Sign Line.



Travis skiing the big boards, he's not a big guy.

 

[BobMc]

Couple more pics that Travis sent me. Sign Line goodness.

 

[BobMc]

Dreary windy morning. I woke up early this morning and checked the Snowbird website to see the tram closed and Mineral as well. I wasn't in a rush at that point and didn't leave my house till 8:00. I got to the Bypass road at about 8:40 and started booting up, Travis texted me and told me to hurry it up, an 8:45 tram was leaving. I missed first tram but was quite happy to hear the tram was running. It was pretty quiet this morning crowd wise, quite the opposite snow wise. It was quite a bit crispier this morning, the crunch factor had been increased after yesterdays warmer temps.

Mineral was open from the get go, the snow back there was pretty harsh for the most part. We did find a nice tongue of wind buff out Powder Paradise just a bit before the Hillary non-step. It was a nice smooth surface about 30-40 yards wide surrounded by coral reef. We took a few laps through it while walking onto the Mineral lift. The groomers were all in good shape with a bit of firmness but no glare ice.

There were high clouds for most of the morning, the light was pretty flat and like yesterday the winds were kicking. It had backed off just enough to let the tram run but they were running barrels inside and moving at a slow speed. The empty car coming down was having trouble getting by tower 4 so there was some pausing and backing up a few hundred yards up from bottom. This backed up the line a bit even though the crowds stayed home. Late morning the sun started poking through, I skied till noon and headed home. It looks like this was a good decision, the winds increased during the day and they shut down the tram, Zoom, Little Cloud and closed Mineral.

The forecast is calling for 10-16 tonight and 4-8 tomorrow. I'd imagine a canyon closure will be in effect for tomorrow morning. I'll be heading into work, unfortunately.

Didn't take many pics today, high clouds with some blue above the valley that let the sun poke through later.




Travis somewhere in the Peruvian valley.

 

[BobMc]

Spring is here this week and brought the sunshine along. With the lack of any new powder snow the crowds were much more subdued this morning. I got to the bypass today at about 8:20 and parked amongst a large group from South Dakota. I remembered these folks from last season as my buddy Travis is from South Dakota and chatted with them last year. I think they were pretty happy that locals remembered them, heh.

I booted up and easily made the first tram of the day which went off at the lately usual time of 8:45. Most folks were making a beeline into Mineral as the morning sun was illuminating it quite nicely and the frontside looked pretty firm. I was waiting for Travis and his kids to show up so I made some tram laps on the front side. It was fairly chalky up top but got crispier as you went down. The chalkiness remained until just below Anderson's (aka Think Young) then it got pretty firm and frozen with a few chicken heads thrown in for good measure here and there.

Once Travis and kids got there we made Peruvian laps, we debated hitting up Mineral but the sign at the tunnel telling of 20 minute lift lines quickly changed that idea. The front side of the hill softened up nicely and the left side of most runs quickly became grippable.

I skied till just before 1:00 and had plans to head over to Solitude to tailgate in the lot with old friends. Once at my car I checked my phone and found one of my buddies had been injured and the tail gating was on hold. He lost his footing on the Fantasy booter and ragdolled down a 150-200 foot rock band (estimated by patrol). Luckily he got away without any major injuries, stitches in various places, dislocated finger and a lot of bruises. He's gonna need a new pair of boots as a buckle was ripped off and one of his skis was never found. I'm just glad he's alive and will ski another day.

I ordered a Powdershots photo a few weeks ago, it came last week, I was pretty happy with their efforts.



It was pretty sunny today, just a few high clouds now and then.



My buddy Travis has his 8yo boy on teles, he did pretty well today, the kid will be a ripper someday.



Tram through the trees.



Tomorrow looks to be much of the same as high pressure is seeming to dominate for a spell.

 

[BobMc]

Unfortunately today wasn't much of the same. We needed either more sun or less wind for the first half of today. After losing an hour of sleep I still got up early and headed to the shower, the forecast didn't have me too excited. What was a forecast calling for mostly sunny had turned to mostly cloudy and winds of 25-35 mph. My warm bed was calling to me as it wasn't a forecast that inspired a lot of confidence. I got to the bypass in time for first tram but I wasn't in a hurry to be on it, I decided to wait for Travis and family to arrive and bypass the crunch, hopefully.

There wasn't much of a tram line this morning and we headed up it and dropped off into Mineral. It was quite crunchy first thing, even a lap on the Baldy lift wasn't producing any softness. We exited Mineral and lapped the Wilbere chair for a bit to escape the winds. The winds started dying around noonish and we made another foray up the tram to find it a bit calmer. Unfortunately it hadn't softened up much, the winds combined with high clouds hadn't enhanced the skiing conditions much. The mountain had about a hundred yards of chalk at the top, then 2000 feet of crunch and then a couple hundred yards of melt.

It got a bit better in the afternoon, but by then I'd called it quits. My buddy Mike hadn't planned on coming up but was texted he'd won a prize in a patrol raffle he'd bought a ticket from last Tuesday. He drove up and picked up a pair of LEKI poles and decided to take a few runs. He called me and I took a few runs with him and he said he'd pick up a beer from Grits and head back to the cars. He got to the top and decided to make a run into Mineral. Headed out the Powder Paradise traverse and just before where it turns from a cat track to a skier track one of two snowboarders above the track pulled down onto the track without looking. Mike hit him square on, helmet to helmet, it blew Mike out of both of his bindings and he slid to the bottom of Powder Paradise. The snowboarder started yelling at Mike from above and Mike yelled back at him that he should look across the highway before crossing it.

Two other boarders brought Mike down his skis and he made his way to the Mineral lift and went through the singles line. He boarded the lift with two snow boarders, one of which starts talking about at least the guy that hit him slid a long ways... Shouting ensues about looking both ways before crossing the street and what not and then 4 minutes of awkward lift riding. Heh.

Wasn't too into busting out the phone/camera.

Mike with his apparently $199 poles for the cost of a $10 raffle ticket.



Stayed rather late, soaking in the afternoon sun.