Alta, UT Condition Reports: Mini Powder Day At 11,000-Feet in Main Chute

Report from October 25th, 2018

My friend Mitch sent me photos ripping of Main Chute at Alta, UT with new snow yesterday.  

I was at the gym in Park City halfway through a workout.  

I dropped what I was doing, picked up my gear, and drove straight to Alta. 

It was 2:30pm.

I was pretty excited and hiked up quick.

1 hour to the base of the chute – 30 mins to the top of the chute.

No one had yet skied the upper half of the chute and it must have snowed a bit the previous night.

I topped out somewhere around 5pm with a 6:32pm sunset looming closely.

The clouds were in and out and when in, they were impenetrable to the eye.

Finally, at about 6pm, a window opened up and I went for it.

The skiing was fun.

A few inches of new snow on smoothish, softish, hardish snow/ice.

In the middle of the season, I’d have called it ‘dust on crust.’

In October, I called it a ‘mini powder day.’

The sunset driving down the canyon was brilliant.

This was our first day of the season for 2018/19.

Our last day of 2017/18 was October 1st, 2018 in Patagonia.

We head to Antarctica to ski guide with Ice Axe Expeditions on Tuesday.