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It Was One of Those Days

ALTA, UT — A late-season storm of ridiculous proportions dropped 26.5 inches of snow starting on Thursday afternoon. The timing was perfect for this ski day to be one of those ridiculously great ski days in the Wasatch. In addition to the snow that had already fallen, there was a 100% chance that it would snow all day today, too. In addition to the previous snowfall superlatives, it is April, so many people have already given up on skiing for the season, which would leave the mountain uncrowded.

Despite the early morning road closure to address the potential for avalanches, there was almost no line to drive up the canyon this morning. Mindy and I got to park right across from the main entrance to the Albion lodge.

I started off by skiing a few runs with Mindy on Sunnyside. The place seemed empty. I tried to make it over to the same spot to the right of Race Hill that I had skied a couple weeks ago, but the deep powder prevented me from traversing far enough, so I dropped down into the Vail Ridge area. The powder there was very deep. My run, however, was not great because I didn't pick a good line through the trees near the bottom.

My second run near Race Hill did not yield the same powder snow results that I had found in Vail Ridge, so I went back there for my next few runs.

After some great powder runs down from Vail Ridge, I left Mindy for a run down from Supreme. I could be wrong, but it didn't seem like the Supreme area had as much snow. I also don't know my way around the Supreme terrain--besides Catherine's Area--all that well. (I decided not to ski Catherine's Area for this run because I didn't want to get stuck with that long, flat run-out and I wanted to explore something new.)

I skied through a gate to the right of Challenger, but I decided to skip the steep, tight chutes I encountered. I veered back onto Challenger for a couple unsatisfactory turns before I skied back through a gate to the right again. I skied some decent turns down to a flat spot with two steep, tight chutes as my options. I spotted another option a little further down, so I skied down there. Unfortunately, that third option--another steep, tight chute--came with a "cliff area" warning sign. There was nowhere else for me to go. I was surrounded on all three sides by inclines and the trek up those inclines in two-feet of powder would not be fun. Cliffs, however, can be fun.

I started down that chute, which I think may have been Dogleg or White Squaw, by sideslipping through the tight entrance. After I got dusted by a couple who made quick work of it, I opened up the throttle and ripped a decent run down the rest of the chute. There wasn't too much powder covering the bumps underneath, but it was still fun.

I met Mindy back at the base of Sunnyside. Unfortunately, we got stuck on the lift ride up for about fifteen minutes. They had to unload the lift using its diesel engine, and then they shut down the lift for repairs. The timing wasn't bad, however, because I wanted to stop at Alf's for a drink of water, and we were planning on meeting a couple friends around that time.

We met up with those friends down at the Albion lodge. Mindy decided to call it a day while I skied some Collins runs with them.

We first skied Sunspot, which was very choppy, but fun. We then skied through some trees between the Race Course Saddle and Mambo where there were some soft powder bumps and a few pockets of ridiculously deep snow. I love those areas between the trees at Alta!

While Les went down to swap out his demo skis for a new pair, Sarah and I skied Fred's trees or something nearby until we ended up back on Mambo. There was more shredded snow on Fred's, so we decided to give our legs a rest and head back to Sunnyside where Vail Ridge held much fresher and deeper powder than anything I skied on those two Collins runs.

The snow on Sunnyside was as fresh and deep as it was in the morning, and I absolutely ripped some runs with Les and Sarah. Mindy had also re-joined us, although she stayed on some easier Sunnyside runs.

Mindy and I took two additional runs after Les and Sarah decided to leave. After a relatively subpar run on the first of those two runs, I carefully picked my next line while riding up the lift. From the top of the ridge, I would ski through a gate and ski at a grove of three pine trees, turn skier's right around them and then left into the fresh pocket of powder snow just below them. Face shot. Then I would drop through a band of abnormally steep terrain (caused by a buried cliff band). Face shot. Then I would snake through the trees on one of the lines I had established earlier in the day, pop out of the trees onto Corkscrew, meet up with Mindy, and absolutely rip it back down to the base. Perfection attained.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★