Alta’s closing day turned out to be another beautiful day in the sun. Temps remained just cool enough to keep the snow from getting too slushy or sticky. The high avalanche conditions kept the High T closed so unfortunately there was no celebrating going on at the end of the day atop of High Rustler. Skiers still came dressed to impress and with live music to keep the party rolling you couldn’t ask for a better end to the season. Thanks to everyone who helped make this another great year to be an Alta skier. We’ll see you all in November.
Alta Skiers Celebrating Another Great Season
Six inches fell last night at Alta with another two falling during the day. Unfortunately with only the Collins lift running and the High T remaining closed your options were very limited. What little terrain did open though skied great. The 8″ of graupel did a wonderful job hiding the icy chunder beneath. Fred’s trees were skiing decent in spots as long as you only turned where it was obviously soft. If you traversed into the Wildcat area there were plenty of fresh, smooth lines to be had. The mountain stayed completely empty all day keeping conditions soft into the afternoon. It looks like we’ll see sunny skies for the remainder of the weekend so get out and enjoy the last of Alta’s 2011-2012 season.
Wildcat Trees - Katie Fillnow
The skiing over the weekend was not half bad despite the extremely warm temperatures. Corn was abundant in the morning hours and was skiing fast and grippy. In the afternoon the snow started to get very sticky and any of the freshly fallen snow from earlier this week that hadn’t been skied up yet thickened into mashed potatoes. There were still good turns to be found on High Boy thanks to the ample amount of skier traffic, creating some soft zipper lines. You could also find some fun turns in West Rustler and Eagle’s Nest but the snow was skiing noticeably more grabby than High Boy. All of Alta’s lifts besides Collins were closed this weekend so don’t expect anymore Wildcat or Sugarloaf runs. There’s still one more weekend left though so get your last Collins laps in while you can.
High Boy - Mike Fillnow
High Boy - Steve Verdugo
I hope everyone had a fun and safe High Boy celebration last Sunday. The weather couldn’t have been better and the skiing wasn’t too bad either. Groomers were skiing smooth and grippy and the off trail conditions softened up a bit in the afternoon. By the time lifts closed the temps started to drop and the winds continued to pick up but locals partied on late into the evening. Overall it was another great day and a fantastic way to celebrate a great season at Alta. Alta is now closed during weekdays but open for the next two weekends including Fridays.
High Boy Celebrations
The conditions at Alta right now are not to be missed. Friday morning skiers woke to a storm total of 23 inches and with skies clearing Alta shredders were treated to some of the best conditions of the year. Alta Ski Patrol opened the Backside and Baldy Shoulder gates by 9:45 giving the few people that were there plenty of deep powder options. With such a small crowd spread out over the entire mountain fresh lines were sticking around well into the afternoon. Looks like we’ll see even more snow and maybe some sun by Sunday afternoon. Should be a good day for Alta’s annual High Boy celebration. Party safe everyone!
I was a little hesitant when I first tried out this ski on demo day but to my surprise I actually liked it. A bit smaller under foot than what I am used to skiing, this ski could grip an edge like no ones business.
Volkl knew what they were designing when they built the Women’s Aurora Ski. They added the Motion iPT wide ride binding to make this ski top notch.The binding will work in your favor as you power through your turns but you will not have to muscle through your turns. The extended Double Grip construction with steel reinforcements lets you make a powerful turn that your ski will be responsive to. The optimal choice for any one.
The Aurora is built with a sensor wood light core that screams Volkl technology and makes this ski a very lightweight ski. It comes with traditional camber and is built with the torsion box and is made of wood making this an excellent solid all around ski.
The width is 82 under foot giving you some width when you take the Aurora off piste but narrow enough to grip the snow on fast groomers. It has a 132/103 tip and tail giving it a versatile shape for any terrain on the mountain. It comes in a 154cm, 161cm and a 168cm length.
Try out the Volkl Women’s Aurora Ski with Attiva iPT Wide Ride 12.0D binding as your all mountain ski and I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Suggested Retail Pricing: $999 with bindings
On Sale: $649.35 with bindings at www.departmentofgoods.com
The weathermen must not be doing their homework because forecasts have been pretty off lately. Fortunately for us skiers they’ve all been wrong in a good way. With only 2″-4″ forecasted for last night waking up to 13″ and counting made it pretty easy to get out of bed this morning. Combine that with zero crowds and you couldn’t ask for much more out of a powder day. The skiing today was definitely one of the better days we’ve had this season. The entire mountain skied bottomless with face-shots a plenty. The Wild Cat lift closed down early in the morning and didn’t reopen until about 12:30 providing skiers with some more fresh tracks just in time as the snow off of Collins was starting to set up a bit. Shortly after Wild Cat started spinning again Alta Ski Patrol lifted the Keyhole gate provoking many powder-hounds to ski late into the afternoon. It looks like we won’t see much snow overnight but more precip is supposed to start back up sometime tomorrow morning. With only 3″-5″ predicted for tomorrow let’s hope forecasters continue to underestimate Mother Nature.
With the extremely warm temps prevailing at Alta over the past few days your typical Spring skiing conditions are in full effect. Sunday was the last day to ride the Supreme Lift so unfortunately no more lift accessed Rocky Point laps. Thankfully Alta Ski Patrol has been opening the Baldy Chutes this week with access into Little Chute and Dog Leg. Today it got a little too warm to allow skiers into the upper chutes but East Baldy was open until about 1:00. With the record breaking warm temps the snow is melting fast everywhere. Navigating Piss Pass is becoming difficult with more dirt and rocks appearing than snow. Hopefully tomorrow night’s storm that is supposed to last through Saturday will give us a little extra base to pad all those rocks before next Sunday’s High Boy celebration.
A Rocky Piss Pass
Hip Jump - Mike Fillnow
Considering that only 3″-6″ were forecasted for today the 12″ that did fall were a welcomed surprise. Alta’s lifts didn’t start running until almost 10:00 and apparently most skiers are over this season because there was no one up there. With snow falling most of the day conditions stayed fresh from open till close. In the morning there was a bit of an ice layer but by afternoon you weren’t hitting anything but face-shots. Pretty much everywhere was skiing great and nothing was getting tracked until late in the afternoon when the sun poked out. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny so get out there early before it all sets up. Sorry for the low quality video footage below. Both my camera batteries died early on so I had to use my phone instead.
The winds must have been howling last night because the 8 inches that fell in the past 24 hours were hard to find. Even when you did find a nice pillow of snow to turn in it was usually accompanied by a rock hard chunk of chunder. Rocky Point skied smooth and fast but you still felt that ever-present ice layer underneath the fresh snow. We found some of our best tuns in Lone Pine where it must of had some wind protection. Hopefully the sunny skies tomorrow soften up that crusty layer. Enjoy it while it lasts. Less than a month left before Alta closes.
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