NateThe storm underproduced but still left almost a foot of snow in the upper canyon. Alta closed the mountain to uphill traffic in preparation for the much anticipated opening day on the 18th. I had to work in the morning so we didn’t leave until 1. The place was busy with skiers all over the backcountry areas. Despite Alta ski area being closed still, it felt like it was a mid-season pow day with all of the cars and skiers/riders. No official complaints here, just observing the changes.
We decided to head up the skin track near Our Lady of the Snow, but we kept losing the track. It kept getting skied over by downhillers plus we’re not super familiar with every nook and cranny across the street. We ended up setting the skin track up through a less than ideal route. But we were on the slow train today and let a fellow skier pass us and unfortunately for him 30 feet later the skin track turned away from the route we were headed and so he ended up putting the track in all the way to the top. Being on a super slow train we didn’t even come close to catching up to him until we summitted, and he was setting the dang thang!
Anyway, the snow was pretty good but it was definitely still pretty bony. I believe I hit a rock on each of my first four turns. But once you found the open grassy areas the snow was deep and a lot of fun. Everything over at Alta really looks like it’s filling in. There are more storms on the horizon it’s setting up to be a great opener.