More hiking at Alta

Tom C. and I planned to hike on the White Pine trail. We started hiking at 1:45ish and could quickly tell that the snow had melted away too much to hike in very far without damaging our skis. Tom wanted to go on this trail because his friend Pat had already gone in on the trail and Tom wanted to meet up with her. We met her coming out after about a 1/2 hour of hiking. I took my skis off and carried them out. We got back to the trailhead at 3. Pat went on home but Tom and I drove up to Alta. We hiked corkscrew and on up to the top of the Collins lift (about 2,000 feet of vertical). I used my Dynafit setup today. They climbed very well. The snow was beginning to harden as the sun was going behind the peaks to the west. Just about to the top we saw a couple of skiers in a couloir. The snow looked good as they skied their tight turns. They only got about 10 turns in the couloir. We got to the top after about an hour and fifteen minutes of climbing. It was icy the top half of the ski down but the snow softened as we descended. My turns were sluggish and my thighs burned but it felt great to be skiing. The views were great as well. Here is a picture of me at the top with Mount Superior behind me.

2010-2011 Ski Season Begins Now

I thought I would list my skiing adventures on this blog for the 2010-2011 ski season. Last Wednesday October 27th we were blasted with snow. There was snow on the ground in the valley and a ton up at the resorts. I should have headed on up Wednesday but ended up going Thursday afternoon. I wanted to try out the Black Diamond Ethic skis I had picked up at the end of last season. They are short at 158cm and are equiped with telemark bindings. I had a set of skins that fit them nicely. I left the office at 3:09 and was hiking by 3:40pm. There was more snow than my first outing last December. I hiked to the top of the Sunnyside lift at Alta and skied back to the car through the resort. I had a couple of tough spots on the way up as the bindings don't have climbing wires. It was a short outing and I was on my way back down the canyon at 5:09pm.