LET IT SNOW: Serious POWder hits the West
Photos from last week's editorial festivities can be found HERE.
“The Price is Right. Come on Down!” The timeless TV idiom of so many weekday mornings acted as the celebratory howl for nearly every skier this past week. Storms full of the light, dry, and white finally unloaded in Utah, Colorado, Tahoe, Montana, New Mexico, and even Southern California.
The beginning of last week looked worse than bleak. While in Little Cottonwood Canyon for the annual POWDER edit conference, we shook our heads in disbelief at the absence of snow; it felt like June. But the Weather Channel forecast called for colder temps and precipitation for later in the week. And as foul weather hit the Pacific Northwest coast ravaging seaside homes and literally flooding sections of Interstate-5 from Portland to Seattle, the massive low-pressure stream collided with northerly cold temps replacing apocalyptic concerns and depression with cries of powder ecstasy. Reports of six feet at Crested Butte, and a few feet in Vail, 90 inches in Silverton and 29 inches at Bridger Bowl swirled about us at the Alta lift line on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And, yes, all the rumored proclamations were true.
And, finally, it dumped at Snowbird and Alta in the LCC, where it actually felt, looked, and smelled like winter. Snowbird finally opened the tram—with limited terrain on Chip’s and Regulator Johnson—after reporting 32 inches in 48 hours. Alta, meanwhile, ran with limited terrain on the Collins and Wildcat lifts; the lift lines were long but the smiles wide as Alta received nearly three feet of snow in the three-day storm. Excitement peaked as locals, pros, photographers, and tourists enjoyed the first significant storm of the early season. Scot Schmidt-esque airs were plentiful on Westward Ho stashes as skiers bounced from soft mogul to mogul while others enjoyed cushy lines in Fred’s Trees and High Boy courtesy of a mid-traverse. But the real gem of the weekend arrived at about 11:30 Sunday morning as the Alta patrol (thanks for all your tireless efforts) opened the backside off high-traverse. POWDER Editor Derek Taylor, Armada’s Tyson Hall, Alta locals Dan Whithey, Dave McReynolds, Craig Dillon, Rob Greener, Brian Barlow, Scott Zenko, Drew Stern and I dropped into untouched bliss. Three feet of Utah smoke billowed overhead, not just on bottomless turns, but the entire descent, blinding our weightless path. Throat choaked with Jell-O legs and ear-to-ear smiles as reggae resonated from Collins, we howled in unison with every other powder skier in the West.
Yes, powder is here…Come on down!
Photos from last week's editorial festivities can be found HERE.
