2-18-2011 Alta to Millcreek

Friday Andy and I went north to south from Millcreek to American Fork.  As we were shuttling back to SLC a brief conversation with Jared had me convinced to leave my car in Millcreek for the night so on Saturday we could tour back over from Alta.  He promised a powder filled tour and his and Chad's good company, how could I say no? 

Catching the 6:11 bus (6200 south) had us skinning to Cardiff Pass as the sun started coming up.  Chilly with clear still skies, beautiful.  We didn't have a specific route drawn for the traverse and the North Face of Superior had been skied since I last saw it Friday morning. It said, "ski me." No joke, we all heard it.  

Early morning light heading to the Black Knob

???

In the name of safety and sticking to the conservative theme of the year, we skied off the Black Knob instead. Jared even offered to drop a little rock band to "bomb it" for us (not that conservative for Jared but he did it for team safety).  The slope passed our bomb test and we were rewarded with the best run of the year.  


During the flat runout Chad found a patch of hidden rocks, with his head.  Luckily he had on his helmet (hat) and nothing worse than a little blood and a headache came of it.  As we skied out Cardiff we kept looking back wondering why we were leaving the best snow of the year.  It came down to two reasons.  1, and most importantly, we took the bus up and our cars were either at the park and ride or in Millcreek. 2, laps can get boring.  Doesn't matter how good.  

Jared

Happy Chad

Bloody Chad

From there the tour ended up better than expected.  The ski cross race out of Cardiff was a blast, Jared easily took the win, and the skin up Mill D was pleasant (sunny, good skinner) if not a little uncomfortable (fast).  We decided to hit Reynold's Peak which found us sitting above a north facing powder shot.  Once again fantastic skiing.

Since we'd found good snow the whole day it seemed like heading up Wilson and getting one more shot was in order.  A quick hike up the shoulder had us looked at the Wilson Chutes.  Just like Superior, they had a set of tracks in them.  They also said "ski me."  Tempting.

Even with the tracks we figured we better not so we skied back to the saddle just east of the chutes.   This led to a long untouched tree run down to the road.  I would have stopped and grabbed a few pictures but I didn't want to get left behind, these guys don't need breaks.  A long skate/ski out and we were back at the car heading home for breakfast.  Jared's promise of powder and good company was fulfilled, not a bad way to spend a morning.

Heading towards Reynolds