With an unexpected 3″ overnight and a little bit of help from the winds, Alta’s hardpack conditions quickly turned around today. Nothing mind blowing but certain areas skied really soft and smooth, especially slopes in between West Rustler and Lone Pine. Thirds and the front side were also surprisingly good, supporting face-shotty snow. Baldy Shoulder looked great but was closed due to the winds. Late tonight forecasters are calling for another small system to move in and drop up to 5″ by tomorrow afternoon. I’ll take it!
This past Tuesday (1/15) Alta celebrated it’s 75th Anniversary. It was a great event filled with fireworks, bonfires, smores, and a torchlight parade. Not sure if the cold temperatures scared people away but very few actually showed up to celebrate a great moment in Alta history. Big or small the party still went on and was a great time for those involved. A big thank you to Alta for helping us celebrate the mountain we all love. Here’s to another 75 years filled with deep powder and a fantastic community.
Alta Ski Area will be releasing 75th Anniversary videos each month this winter. Showcasing some of Alta’s best moments over the past 75 years they are certainly worth a watch. This month’s video focuses on the gelande jumping event that Alta used to host starting in the late 1940’s. An event that was supposed to measure how far a skier could air seemingly turned into a freestyle event, as you will see towards the end of the video. It appears that even back in the day Alta skiers were pushing the limits of freestyle throwing big tricks with big consequences. If you missed last month’s video be sure to check that one out as well. Alta powder skiing doesn’t get much better!
Opening week at Alta turned out to be one to remember with numerous premo days. Unfortunately, Mother Nature’s early snowfall is starting to show it’s age. Traverses are becoming rocky and slopes hard packed and icy. However, venturing out to High Boy is still worth the trip. Even with the low-light viz we found plenty of decent turns, especially in the upper section where it skied smooth and chalky. You had no problem digging an edge in and with the snap of a ski you could blast yourself with some chalk shots that almost made you feel like you were skiing deep for a moment. The lower section, although a bit more bumpy, had some perfectly aged graupel to turn in. It looks like the sun will poke its head out again tomorrow and with the small holiday crowd gone you should have no reason not to shred.
If you missed the opening of Backside yesterday don’t fret. The mountain was completely empty leaving plenty of lines for you late comers. The coverage is excellent and the High Notch is even easily navigable. The Eddie’s High Nowhere hike is a bit frightening at points but, the top turns are worth the trip as it’s skiing smooth and chalky. Susie’s trees, although a little tracked by the end of the day, was still skiing soft and fluffy. It’s been less than a week since Alta’s opening day and patrol have already opened most of the mountain. Keep up the good work, guys and gals! Can’t wait for Supreme!!
The past 48 hours have been good to Alta. It dumped an inch shy of a foot Saturday night and made for some very impressive skiing over the past two days. The fresh snow fell mostly as graupel but did an excellent job of covering up those rocky traverses and blanketing slopes with a smooth layer of cream. The skiing on Sunday was fantastic and even some of the rockier chutes like Regal and Rustler 4 were doable if you didn’t mind a couple of base shots. This morning the Alta Ski Patrol lifted the Baldy Shoulder gate making it the go-to spot for freshies. The traverse started out great but after a few laps became extremely sketchy with no real way of getting around without tip-toeing. The weather forecast is looking warm for the next few days with our best chance for snow not coming until next Monday.
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