Near the end of a disappointing winter, it’s finally starting to feel like the old days. The storm rolled in over the weekend and continued off and on through last night, dropping as much as two inches an hour at the high points. While the end result didn’t give us the neck-deep trenching that was common place only a few years ago, the riding was pretty damn good, and we got all we could.
On Saturday, Jen and I headed up Grizzly to sample the first of the snowfall, but my decision to ski the South face found us riding dust-on-crust. Either way, it was good to be outside. A day later Scott and I came back to the top of LCC in hopes of correcting my previous error in line choice, but the canyon showed the telltale signs of a city of skiers who haven’t seen snow in far too long. Not only were all of the resort parking lots full, but there was no place to park at the backcountry access point to Grizzly Gulch—which is a pretty clear indication of the number of backcountry skiers who would be devastated if the One Wasatch plan succeeds.
With our first option closed, Scott and I drove down canyon to the also-crowded White Pine trail head, but we managed to find untracked powder regardless. Yesterday, the storm huffed and puffed again, and a foot of the good stuff fell in 24 hours. Tired of the crowds in LCC, Scott and I headed to the other canyon and skied two laps of light, fluffy, Utah powder. Before we even got back, Jamon had sent me an email to see if I wanted to go on dawn patrol today, which, of course, I did.
Now, waking up at 5:00 in the morning when you don’t have anything else to do that day is a little tough, but in this case it was worth it. Jen joined us for the first lap, and our crew of four went on to do two more before we finally got to the point where people couldn’t put off their meetings any longer.
It’s hard to say what the future of Wasatch skiing looks like, but these last few days have made me miss the weekly storms that we used to have and fear the loss of places like Grizzly Gulch to the greed of the corporations who own the ski resorts and the politicians who will ultimately get to make the decisions.
