Ski Trip Report: First Two Days at Alta in 2006

Life doesn't get any better than this! First, I do New Year's in Vail. Then I join my dad for 5 days at Alta. Like the last couple of times I've come up here, I'm staying at the Peruvian. I came the same week as last year. Its amazing! Apart from a few new faces, its almost the same people staying here. Every conversation begins with something about you looking familiar. This sure says something for customer loyalty and what a great place the Peruvian is.

So now on to the skiing. Dad and I got up here around 8AM on the 4th. There were 4" of fresh light Alta powder to go on top of the 10" they got the day before. This presented me with an ethical challenge. On the one hand, its a powder day and we all know that there are no friends on powder days. My dad is 56 years old, a smoker, and severely out of shape. So skiing with him would mean missing out on a lot of good turns. On the other hand, he did fly all the way from Taiwan to go skiing with me. The decision wasn't made any easier when on the 2nd run when dad lost a ski almost as soon as we hit the powder. Not having powder cords, Murphy's law dictated that his ski burried itself in the snow. We spent a good 30 minutes digging for it. We were just about to write it off and I was about to leave him when he stepped on it with his boot. Damn!!! So dad had his ski and we were back to skiing together again. (Note: Our first stop after finding his ski was to visit the ski shop and get him some powder cords. He has been bitching about them being a pain in the ass every since.)

So what was good on day one? While waiting for dad to buy powder cords, I found some fairly untracked snow in Greeley bowl and Greely Hill. We spent the early afternoon on the Supreme lift. The areas to skier's right and left of the lift are littered with amazing chutes. The snow cover was good. I didn't hit any rocks. Although very steep, the entries to most of them do not involve jumping any rocks. Catherine's opened while we were in at lunch. But after getting back out, I made the hike out there around 1:30. Everything that was easy to reach was already tracked up. So I hiked all the way to the outer edge of the area boundary. To my delight I was treated to a nice moderate pitch (Note: Most of Catherine's is moderately pitched) with only 4 other tracks through it. Although only a spray, I got this season's first face shot on that run. Shortly thereafter, I split with dad and made laps off the Collins lift until closing. To get back to the lodge, I took Wildcat Bowl and Blackjack back to the Peruvian. That whole face off of the Wildcat lift is one of Alta's best kept secrets. Even though it was the end of the day, it was only mildly tracked and the shade kept the snow nice and light.

Today they opened up Ballroom just after 9AM. So instead of the normal groomer for our warmup, we warmed up on the Ballroom traverse. Since it was the warmup, we stopped about midway and then skied down. I didn't make dad do the whole traverse. I let my dad go down first and was amazed. The old man was skiing powder and making nice looking turns. I was so happy for him. Every other time I've taken him into powder he's always looked really uncomfortable and I've felt guilty for taking him down those runs. But today he got it! You da' man dad! Just after lunch as we were getting off the Sugarloaf lift, they opened up Devil's Castle. So of course we followed the mass of waiting local powder addicts through the gate. Getting into Devil's Castle involves a good hike. So don't go there unless you're willing to sweat. I wasn't willing to wait for dad to deal with his powder cords, so we immediately got split up. It was beautiful powder down the first pitch. After that first pitch I followed a few tracks towards a knowl. One of the things I love about Alta is all the suprises you find. For me, this was a cliff band on the other side of the knowl. Not being the huckmeister, I opted for a narrow chute instead of the 15' cliff with the mystery landing. The chute was quite an adrenaline rush. It goes with out saying that it was steep. But to start off it was only 2 ski length wide. So at first you could make hop turns. Then it narrowed to less than a ski length wide and to get out you had to do a straight line and duck under a pine tree before it let you out into this awesome powder field that almost no one had been in. This brought me to face shot number two for the season. I love face shots! After that I got another two runs in Devil's Castle. Again Dad and I split up at the end of the afternoon. I took a number of runs down West Rustler. But the best runs were in Eagle's Nest. The chutes were narrow, the entries sometimes a bit hairy, and the snow was tracked but dry.

So now that I've been here for two days, how does Alta compare with Vail? First, the people at Alta are here for skiing the skiing as opposed for the social scene. They wear functional clothing that often doesn't match instead of one piece Bogner suits. They all have a burning passion for skiing and are intensely devoted to Alta. Second, besides a few ski shops, there is no shopping up here. So if you're looking to buy a new fur coat, its probably not the place to go. Third, Alta is much smaller than Vail. You could fit Alta into Vail's back bowls. Lastly, Alta is much steeper than Vail. I didn't ski a run at Vail that is as steep as any of the chutes or most of the bowls at Alta.