Utah Mountain Blog 4 - October 28, 2009

We got some new snow so we headed to Alta to see how well the new is bonding to the old, and to check on depth.  At 5:55 am it was around 10 degrees (f) at 8800 ft.  High winds had moved the snow around quite a bit, which made it tough to estimate how much the Oct. 28 storm dumped.  At around 10,000 ft on a northwest facing aspect we had a bit of sluffing between the old and new snow. 

(This trip marked the alpha backcountry outing for not only Lou, but Utah MS01, our 1 ton - 15 passenger)  

(Dalt, narrowly missing becoming decapitated during astriod field crossing)

Our party included Lou, Dalt, Babs and Ryan.  Babs and Dalt snowshoed with their (rock) boards on their backs.  Lou and I skinned.  We encountered another group of four on the skin track.  It was a pleasant climb.  Lou took to the skin track like a dog to a bone, the descent was a different story for everybody, due to catastrophic equipment failure and the uneven snow depth and consistency.  When we got to the top my Naxo 21 binding popped its main pivot axle, so I had to monoski down slalom style with one ski on my back... brutal.  Near the bottom where the snow-making equipment layered down some bullet proof, both Babs and Dalt took headers, classic.  

Utah Mountain Blog 3 - October 6, 2009 - Alta pre-season

Utah Mountain Blog 2 - October 5, 2009 - Alta 20"

Utah Mountain Blog 1 - October 5, 2009 - The season is fast approaching.