The Last Run

Final turns of the 2013-14 ski season

With a trough dropping temperatures just a bit and the hopes of getting one last day of continuous skiing to the car, my son and I hit Alta today for what I'm sure will be our last turns of the year.

As suggested by the photo below, we probably could have pieced together a continuous non-stop run to very near the base on the Collins side.

However, Alta was asking people not to park on the Collins lot.  It was Sunday, and we figured it couldn't hurt if we did, but being good neighbors we elected to go from Albion instead.

That was painful.  It's remarkable how much snow has melted in the past seven days.  My son was here on Monday and said skiing to the car wouldn't have been a problem.  Today, one had to skip from snow patch to snow patch in the lowest couple hundred vert.

Conditions improved above 9000 feet.  Things looked pretty grim up in the Supreme area (except perhaps Catharines), so we went up to Sugarloaf Pass.  It was a gorgeous day to be on skis and, with temperatures in the 40s, pretty comfortable.

It was really cool to start skiing in a winterscape, but look down at a summery scene in Albion Basin.

Conditions featured everything from bone rattling suncups (near the top, see above photo) to decent corn to snirty sandpaper.  We squeezed out what we could.

That's it for me.  I'm done until the powder starts to fly in the fall.