Powder day at Alta

I would not usually report on a day of resort skiing on this blog but I have to report on today. I hooked up with Craig and Liz. The plan was to meet at the LCC park and ride at 9. LCC was way backed up with cars. We made it to Alta and to our first lift ride by 11. The plan was to head straight for the Supreme lift. Supreme was still closed so we rode Collins and then over to Sugarloaf. The lift operator told us that the Supreme lift was open so we headed there. Signs were posted that said the lift was closed but yes it was open. We got into some fantastic powder skiing in the runs close to the lift. Plenty of snow hitting our faces as we skied. One time I plowed through a drift and I could feel the snow slamming into my chest. Another time I was breathing in and sucked down a mouth full of snow. At about 2 we went to the Watson lodge for lunch. I didn't add to my elevation totals today since I rode the lift but we still did a bit of hiking and traversing to get to some of the runs we were seeking. The worst was the traverse from the Sugerloaf lift to the Collins lift on our way to lunch. It was snowing hard, the wind was howling and in our faces. My arms were dead at the end of it from pushing myself with my poles. Liz asked me if I knew what Alta stood for?

A = another
L = long
T = traverse
A = again

We certainly did our fair share of long traversing. We skied the rest of the day off the Collins lift. Craig wanted to show me some of his favorite chutes around High Rustler and the Eagles Nest. I was skiing terrain that pushed me to my limits. It was such a hard day of skiing that my thighs started to cramp. On the last run of the day I had to stop a few times to work the cramps out. Craig was kind enough to give me some pointers on my skiing technique. He was able to ski the terrain with much less effort than I. I was begging for some guidance. It was a real clinic in skiing the steep stuff. At the end of the day of skiing I was totally spent. Since the canyon road conditions were bad and all the traffic we stayed at the lodge and had a pizza. I got home after 9:30.