November 28th with Sean Brennan

Finally recieved snow! Two nights ago the skies darkened, the snow began to fall, and we woke up to at least 10" of fresh snow throughout the canyon! I made a call to Sean Bear and we linked up in the morning around 9am. Fearing we were getting out a little too late, each skin track showed fewer and fewer pole marks and we found Greely Ridge basically untouched...minus two tracks. We pushed forward south up the ridge looking for more northern facing aspects (those holding the most snow before the storm...still real thin) and were delighted to find completly buffed out, untouched fields of powder. With a solid pitch (maybe 30-35 degrees), a series of slightly windloaded ridges, and stashes of trees to carve through, it was WAY beyond what we expected. It only took another 30 minutes to skin back up and take another lap, yelping the whole way down and giving big hugs and high fives while the snow started melting off our faces.

As you'll see from the pictures, it was a beautiful day.


The view of Superior from within the dining room of the lodge, the storm clearing after 10" and the beginning of a bluebird day.


Looking over at Greely Hill, Sugarloaf Peak clearing from the clouds. Snow is still very thin, but this is a shot at a classic powder meadow at Alta.



The objective: Gunsight. The shot in the middle with the two little pines below the cliffs on the left. Ended up skiing both chutes to lookers right of Gunsight, unable to get around the bulge of rock to the right of Gunsight.



Greely Ridge with the clouds clearing, Gunsight and the entrance of 3rds stretching out to the right of the photo. Notice the two tracks in 2nds...the only people ahead of us...YES!


The entrance to 2nds on the right with the tracks, the cliff in the middle ends up being a 15-20 footer.


Sean Bear billy goating on our boot pack up the ridge and over to Gunsight.


A snowball shows us the way down an untouched powder field. Fearing it a bit shallow we took it slow and were rewarded with face shots as the snow had drifted into 18" deep pockets (at least). Cutting across the subtle ridge on the left of this chute was over head blower powder, we giggled whole way down.


Sean catching up with that snowball...


Sean coming up for air while cruising through the trees at the bottom of the run.


Out of focus and a bit off, but Sean milks another wave of low density powder!

Tomorrow the lifts start running and a couple groomers will be open, its up in the air whether they'll open a couple of other skiable areas, maybe Ballroom and parts of the shoulder. Either way, Sean is headed up and another 5"-8" is supposed to fall by night fall with possibly heavier snow in the evening. No work till 3pm the next two days; finally, I'm skiing in Alta.

Hope all is well,

andy