This is an Alta - Main Days round trip by Mike, Richard and I. Skinning up to the top of West Bowl via Flagstaff Gully at 10020 we dropped in at Hideaway Park in Days Fork down to about 9000 then skinned back up to the top of Main Days at 10561. The snow was absolutely fantastic, light and fast. Going down Main Days in those conditions makes it feel like the fun just never ends. Definitely worth doing again - so we did. This was a sunny and stable kind of day so everything was perfect except maybe for the noise level introduced in that fork when the chopper came in. It wouldn't stop that day for a long while. While skinning up the choice line that Main Days is, I was worried they would drop a dozen skiers on "our" line which would have made that day significantly less perfect. But they didn't the first time, nor the second time we went up. They dropped on West Bowl just south of us and then a couple of drops on Crystal Palace just north of us but not on Main Days. I was wondering; could this be a coincidence? and as often in those cases you don't get a definite answer. Well a couple of weeks later I stumbled into my friend and mountain guide, Brian Redding, at the supermarket in Park City. He told me it actually is policy over at the Powderbirds to leave alone any line that back country skiers are skinning up. They have the ability to pick any other line and so that's what they choose to do. This does make me feel a lot better about that outfit. I don't like compromise in the BC more than the next guy but I always felt that the temporary encroaching by heli operations are less of a threat than the always permanent aspect of resort expansion. So, thank you Powderbirds for not "robbing us" of "our" line...
Here a few pictures (click to enlarge):
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| Richard and Mike on the way up with Superior in the distance. |
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| Transitioning on top of Main Days |
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| What that line looks like when you are looking at it from the good end... |
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