April 18-21
April 18
I returned from the Tushers at about midnight. Got up the next morning and received a phone call before 8 am, wanting me to go skiing with a couple of guys in town filming a documentary about backcountry conflicts.
Didn't un-pack, but grabbed my stuff and off we went.
Wasn't the best day for skiing or filming. We did the big easy around the Alta perimeter, ending up skiing the cat track out Grizzly Gulch in the fog.
In the parking lot after the tour, we were looking at all the trash left by the revelers from the last day of Alta and found this "puffer". It was empty, so it's still there.
April 19
I got another call the next morning. Bill Glude from Alaska was in town and wanted to go touring. Grabbed my stuff again and off we went, this time skiing into Cardiff.
We skied the keyhole into main Cardiff, climbed to the top of Cardiac ridge for a view into Mineral, climbed and skied Little Superior northeast facing, exiting out to the guard station, once again in the fog.
I tried to get a picture of the wet slab off Flagstaff from the weekend. It's a little blurry.
April 20
Woke up the next morning and checked the weather and avalanche report expecting a couple of inches of new snow.
The surprise was over a foot and still snowing. A posse was gathered and I got a ride from Joni.
Brian, as usual, hadn't skied for a while, and was chomping at the bit. He started off and continued in the lead for most of the day, breaking trail for the rest of us.
Not only that, but he was happy to do the ski cutting at the top of the first run in Over Easy.
Gotta a couple of pics of Joni lower down. Not quite face shots...
but she seems to be enjoying the new snow.
Brian and Joni had enough after a run down the West bowl, exiting down the south side, back to Alta. Steady Eddie, met again in the parking lot, continued into Days Fork with ski cutting continuing to produce sluffing with in the new snow.
I did manage one picture of Eddie running out the lower of Hideaway, after we finally found a slope angle low enough to ski without the sluffing.
We though a run down Main Days was possible, but the sun came out turning the sunny aspects to mashed potatoes. The thought was we could follow the pictured, God awful, skin track up and get some dry powder by entering Cardiff via Holy Toledo.
The snow had gone off in Holy Toledo also, and it was ruined by repeated ski cuts. It was afternoon and the snow had heated enough to run at the old snow surface producing steamroller damp slides, packing some punch. The exit, down Cardiff Bowl, once again foggy was like skiing in mud.
April 21
I thought a rest day was in order, but a phone call in the morning had me up and at it again, for a trip up Gobblers.
Skins iced from the road to the summit, but the trail was broken by those having enough sense to carry skin wax.
One trip up and one down. They let me have first tracks.
Ain't over till it's over, with the cloud cover preserving the snow into afternoon.
The slopes exposed to the most sun rollered in the afternoon, but the most protected remained for another go at it the next day.