marzNC
Angel Diva
Wow, talk about changing spring conditions in LCC. Too warm (40's at the top of Collins), cold (20's), snowstorm (12 inches), blue bird with powder . . . with spring skiing to come.
Day 1 was April 4. Spent most of the day over at Snowbird in rising temps. Went from hard to soft to corn to slush in a few hours. Still fun to check out the Peruvian tunnel and the tram for the first time. Thinking about taking DD over to see the tunnel before we leave. She's skiing more than well enough to enjoy Mineral Basin.
Day 2 was cold, meaning under freezing all day. So everything froze up overnight and pretty much stayed that way. The groomers off Supreme were still fun though, especially since it was a day for our little group to ski with the kids (ages 8-11) and another family who had never been to Alta before (cautious intermediate mom, dad and teenage sons advanced). The younger kids learned a lot at Alta ski school by then. All could handle Challenger and No. 9 Express (short but steep blacks) even when quite frozen. Was their idea to ski them in the afternoon. Interesting way to test out Blizzard Crush. Worked pretty well.
Day 3 it was snowing hard at breakfast time. Already 5-6 inches at the base. Got a slow start with getting all the kids organized. Plus Sugarloaf didn't open until 10:45 and Supreme didn't open until late morning. The kids did ski school after lunch . . . so the adults could go play on Supreme. Saw the my DD and her friend take Vail Ridge (black off Sunnyside) for a first run. Knee deep powder and they were doing fine following the instructor. They stayed on Supreme most of the afternoon, so we also got to see them do the 3 Bears gully.
Official storm total was 12 inches, all in about 12 hours. In the morning, a pole plant would hit frozen base most places on a groomer. By the afternoon, that was much less of an issue. Heard that everything off Wildcat was very good.
Day 4 was Demo Day. Free demos from about 30 vendors. Definitely a bonus that it was so cold overnight that it didn't get over freezing higher up until shortly after lunch. So there was powder for checking out skis. Blue bird sky. Ballroom opened up first thing. I managed a run on Salomon Geishas in bottomless powder. Over on Strawberry later in the morning, I heard scraping every few turns but essentially chopped up powder. Soft snow in lots of places on the Collins side before lunch if you knew where to look.
Was certainly not expecting any powder skiing this trip. Just never know what will happen in April. Very glad to be here for the last week of the Supreme lift. Last full week for Alta ends April 15 although opening on weekends until the end of April this year. Already know the last day in 2013 will be April 14. Planning next year's spring break trip already.
Day 1 was April 4. Spent most of the day over at Snowbird in rising temps. Went from hard to soft to corn to slush in a few hours. Still fun to check out the Peruvian tunnel and the tram for the first time. Thinking about taking DD over to see the tunnel before we leave. She's skiing more than well enough to enjoy Mineral Basin.
Day 2 was cold, meaning under freezing all day. So everything froze up overnight and pretty much stayed that way. The groomers off Supreme were still fun though, especially since it was a day for our little group to ski with the kids (ages 8-11) and another family who had never been to Alta before (cautious intermediate mom, dad and teenage sons advanced). The younger kids learned a lot at Alta ski school by then. All could handle Challenger and No. 9 Express (short but steep blacks) even when quite frozen. Was their idea to ski them in the afternoon. Interesting way to test out Blizzard Crush. Worked pretty well.
Day 3 it was snowing hard at breakfast time. Already 5-6 inches at the base. Got a slow start with getting all the kids organized. Plus Sugarloaf didn't open until 10:45 and Supreme didn't open until late morning. The kids did ski school after lunch . . . so the adults could go play on Supreme. Saw the my DD and her friend take Vail Ridge (black off Sunnyside) for a first run. Knee deep powder and they were doing fine following the instructor. They stayed on Supreme most of the afternoon, so we also got to see them do the 3 Bears gully.
Official storm total was 12 inches, all in about 12 hours. In the morning, a pole plant would hit frozen base most places on a groomer. By the afternoon, that was much less of an issue. Heard that everything off Wildcat was very good.
Day 4 was Demo Day. Free demos from about 30 vendors. Definitely a bonus that it was so cold overnight that it didn't get over freezing higher up until shortly after lunch. So there was powder for checking out skis. Blue bird sky. Ballroom opened up first thing. I managed a run on Salomon Geishas in bottomless powder. Over on Strawberry later in the morning, I heard scraping every few turns but essentially chopped up powder. Soft snow in lots of places on the Collins side before lunch if you knew where to look.
Was certainly not expecting any powder skiing this trip. Just never know what will happen in April. Very glad to be here for the last week of the Supreme lift. Last full week for Alta ends April 15 although opening on weekends until the end of April this year. Already know the last day in 2013 will be April 14. Planning next year's spring break trip already.
