Iron Mtn 12-26-2016

This is one spot I haven't been to in years (ever since The Colony has taken over and built houses and roads all over the place). This used to be a great little local outing. Today if you do the ridge line you'll get a bit over 1,000 feet elevation gate before you hit the development. You can double that by taking a sharp left, then summiting Iron, go east for a bit and pick one of the three bowls. In any case, yesterday I needed to test my legs and health coming out of a longish flue so Iron would do for the job at hand. Being out with two dogs and seeing the crowds on the Iron Mtn trail I decided to almost immediately take a sharp left and skin up the ridgeline. This came with the additional benefits of getting into the sun sooner (it was only 5 degrees F yesterday morning), and a more relevant "leg test" as you here have to break your own trail. There was a fair amount of really dry cold powder and this little mini-outing turned out to be a lot more pleasant than expected. The test also worked out great: I am officially not ill at all anymore (at least not physically..). Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Iron Mountain as seen from the Pinecone ridge line.

The dogs (Loki & Skadi) as excited as ever.

A fair amount of snow for being just 8,300 feet.

Empire Powder

This was a few days before this last storm and the conditions were already absolutely excellent. Jana and I went out for a couple of easy laps from Deer Valley Empire Lodge to Empire Express. Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Nice turns in Empire bowl.

Jana working here way up Supreme.

Snowmobile track all the way up Supreme.

Looking down on Empire Express top station.

Jana on top.

Giving Thanks to the latest storm

The season's first outing with Mike was to Empire Express top station from the Empire Lodge (next to the Montage). Elevation gain is 1,350 feet and we did three laps so a bit over 4,000 feet elev. gain before lunch. For the first lap (that started at 8:00 am) we were pretty much alone and had to break a fair amount of trail as today we were first to the Empire Express top station. On the third lap (past 10:30 am) the lower half of the hill was crowded, it felt like we were sharing this thing with another 100+ people. Here are a few pictures (click to enlarge):

View of Jupiter Peak from Empire Express top station.

Mike transitioning to the downhill at Empire Express.

Skadi hydrating...

...and Loki thinking about it.

Winter Wonderland - LCC

Today I went back to Alta Collins expecting pretty much the same conditions as last time. How wrong was I? Really, really wrong I am glad to say. This last storm made a huge difference. Everything was skiable, there was good powder everywhere and all the snow machines were limited to below the Collins angle station. A picture being worth a thousand words, here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Mt Superior looks a whole lot better than just two days ago.

Cardiff Pass

Toledo Bowl

On the way to the north shoulder of Mt Baldy.

I'll just call this one "magic of  winter."

Crossing over from the Wildcat area going
towards Germania Pass.

Looking back on my turns off the north shoulder of Baldy.

Below Sugarloaf from Germania Pass (aka Collins top station).

Training the zoom onto Twin Lakes Pass.

1st Ski of the Season!

I went up to the Alta Collins base today and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could skin from the parking lot. Had one of those “stolen winter days” where everything around you tells you it really is winter, the wait is finally over. The wait has not been as bad as it seems, my first ski this year is only 12 days later than my first ski last year. It is true that the two years prior I was able to ski in October but then those two years turned into pitiful seasons while last season was quite OK. Here is to hoping that two late starts in a row translates into two proper seasons (or better).

I skinned to Germania Pass (top of Collins lift) but the snow up high was just insufficient for any real ski so I Nordic skied down on my skins and went across and up to the top of Wildcat. From there I again Nordic skied down but only to the Collins angle station as from there on the skiing was good and fun.

So what do you get out of a day like that?

1) A snow day

2) Lots of skinning

3) Average turns

Number 1) requires no comment. Number 2) gets you exercise while enjoying the Sub-Arctic flora, and 3) is amazing as everyone knows that bad turns let alone average turns, are a ton better than no turns at all!

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Snow straight from the parking lot!

'Tis the season for a fair amount of service road action...

Limited but decent skiing opportunities

It looks like this is yet another year where the resort is
going to open before Graet Baldy chute is in condition...

...but thanks god Suicide chute is still there to
take up the slack.

I have passed here a million times (take or leave...) but
until today never noticed the indian head in profile.
Look inside the oval on the ridge-line and  look for the
nose then you'll figure out the eye and the mouth.

ARE WE THERE YET?!!!#@$%!!!!

OK, so we already have two false alerts here and here. Is this going the be the one? Is this going to be the week that we remember as launching an amazing 2016/2017 season! This horribly delayed start of the season is really a cruel and unusual hardship. There are two reasons it is almost survivable 1) we did not get a regular shoulder season monsoon so pre-season training on the hill never got interrupted, and 2) last year was a later start than the two prior seasons yet it was a much better winter than the two prior. This means there is still hope for an amazing 2016/2017 season!

Her's the forecast (click to enlarge):

Second September storm (and the 3rd one is in the chamber)

What a difference a couple of days can make! The first picture below was taken on Sunday the 2nd (two days ago) and the second picture was taken today. The last picture is a screenshot of the Alta webcam today at 10:35 am. It shows Mt Superior and you can see a longish white line going from the ridge line down towards the middle of the base; that's Suicide Chute.

Our next snow storm is due to start tonight and last through Wednesday and Thursday.

Could that be the one that will yield the season's first ski? Stay tuned... Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Jupiter East Bowl Sunday 10-2-2016

Jupiter East Bowl Tuesday 10-4-2016

Mount Superior Tuesday 10-4-2016 at 10:35 am