TR - Who needs ski resorts anyway? A spectacular first day out in the Wasatch

[tradygirl]

Note: I'm so incredibly bummed. Went out for the first tour of the year today and my camera died after talking the first picture!! If it's all right with you guys, I'm poaching some pictures from my friend Derek. Another bummer...no pictures of me skiing. Overall, not my best TR effort! :(

10/19/07
So Derek and I were discussing our options the other night and we came to the same conclusion....we really wanted to get out skiing, but we didn't want to join the throngs at Alta. People usually stick to the ski resorts for pre-season hiking since the cat tracks are a safe, rock-free way to get back down to the base. This year has been extremely crowded pre-season at Alta, and even the snow from Thursday's storm was getting tracked out. So, we decided solitude is much more important than skiing quality, so we tried our luck in the backcountry. Well, the skiing quality didn't disappoint! Two peaks, incredible views, and wind-blown creamy powder. It ended up being a 5 hour tour, 4.6 miles, 2700 vertical feet.

At the painfully early hour of 6:30AM, we met up in the park and ride lot. We were skinning by 7:00AM.

Sunrise over Superior. Damn, she looks good in white.

Devil's Castle and Sugarloaf Mountain looming above Alta

The wind was whipping on the ridge, but the sky was blue and the temps were comfortable.

Derek's friend Seth getting his meadow skipping on...

This is definitely the best opening day of any season for me (and it's only Oct 19 - woot!). I think it's a good indication of a great season to come!

 

[SnowHot]

color me green
I LOVE the pics!!!

 

[Sheena]

Awesome pics! I especially like the first one.

Do you think the snow will stay good through Sunday?

 

[Jilly]

tradygirl, I saw your pic of Alta, and looked up over my monitor to see my watercolour print, hanging on the wall, of Alta from a few years back (OMG-17yr ago) to see the same peak. Just fantastic. Good for you gal!!

 

[cloudpeak]

Nice!

 

[Marigee]

I'm envious! You are so lucky to live close to great skiing.

 

[Native Vail Gal]

I'm envious! You are so lucky to live close to great skiing.

DITTO!!!!

 

[altagirl]

Very nice! Looks sweet!

We had a great time biking in Moab though... I'm not ready to pass on the perfect riding weather yet! ;)

 

[tradygirl]

Very nice! Looks sweet!

We had a great time biking in Moab though... I'm not ready to pass on the perfect riding weather yet! ;)

Totally understandable. It sounds like Moab was great - Josh was really sad that he had to come home early. I'm probably jumping the gun on skiing so early since we only have like seven months of winter to come, but I couldn't help myself. It's kind of ironic that I decided not to go to Moab to catch up on sleep and homework and I ended up on Monday morning sleep-deprived and still behind on my homework.

 

[altagirl]

Totally understandable. It sounds like Moab was great - Josh was really sad that he had to come home early. I'm probably jumping the gun on skiing so early since we only have like seven months of winter to come, but I couldn't help myself. It's kind of ironic that I decided not to go to Moab to catch up on sleep and homework and I ended up on Monday morning sleep-deprived and still behind on my homework.

Yeah, you'd have to have gone to Kansas or something this weekend to be able to concentrate on homework! ;)

 

[Gloria]

Yeah, you'd have to have gone to Kansas or something this weekend to be able to concentrate on homework! ;)

Or somewhere in the Northern Rockies where rifle season just opened. Opening weekend, what a nightmare, I even have to put orange vests on my dogs to walk them. I would have loved to have been able to decide between biking or skiing. My decision for the next several weeks is where to go to get out without getting shot at. You guys are lucky.

 

[altagirl]

Or somewhere in the Northern Rockies where rifle season just opened. Opening weekend, what a nightmare, I even have to put orange vests on my dogs to walk them. I would have loved to have been able to decide between biking or skiing. My decision for the next several weeks is where to go to get out without getting shot at. You guys are lucky.

Oh, it's open season here too.

For some reason I don't worry about it all that much. I probably should, but I guess I figure we're on really popular trails and hope the hunters know to expect riders there. Which is probably not smart on my part, but... we do make quite a racket coming through. We had an 18 person group out riding this weekend.

It's interesting because in the Wasatch, we've ridden through the hugely popular trails here and had hunters sitting on the side of the trail who get pissed that we're making noise and scaring away any potential deer. Okay genius, how's about getting off this superhighway of a trail if you want to try to be all stealthy...

 

[Gloria]

Oh, it's open season here too.

For some reason I don't worry about it all that much. I probably should, but I guess I figure we're on really popular trails and hope the hunters know to expect riders there. Which is probably not smart on my part, but... we do make quite a racket coming through. We had an 18 person group out riding this weekend.

It's interesting because in the Wasatch, we've ridden through the hugely popular trails here and had hunters sitting on the side of the trail who get pissed that we're making noise and scaring away any potential deer. Okay genius, how's about getting off this superhighway of a trail if you want to try to be all stealthy...

It goes to show there is benefits to every way of life. We don't have to suffer the crowds of "popular trails" most of the year, but this time of year, bikers or hikers are a foreign concept to most of the hunters that use the same trails. I never use to worry about it so much either, but I have had 3 near misses with people shooting at my dogs in the past 7-8 years that I am alot more careful anymore. ( My lab had her back grazed by a bullet a couple of years ago, in addition to having someone pull a gun out as my dog on a leash and I rounded a corner of a very popular trail he actually thought I was with a bear? , that same dog and I watched an arrow fly past us during bow season one year too. Scary ) I ended up buying an orange zip tee from steep and cheap, it has been awsome to have! I put plastic throw away type vests on the dogs now. ( they hate em ) We talked about getting out and hiking up to the snow and checking it out yesterday, but the other thing that scared us was the fact that we'd have to drive against downhill traffic on forest service roads, unfortunately whiskey and hunting go hand in hand around here and it's just to common to get pummeled on these roads this time of year. It's just never a cut and dry fault, it just turns into a huge battle between insurance companies and everyone loses in the end. Oh well it's just a couple of months, everyone deserves their turn huh?

 

[Gloria]

also...

Congratulations Trady Girl!!! Will that be a French Roast, with cream and sugar? Rockstar!!!:cheer: :cheer: :cheer: