Report from April 28, 2023

Yesterday, I drug my extremely tired keester up 11,068′ Mt. Baldy at Alta, UT to ski the legendary Main Chute.

On Thursday, this hike took me 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Yesterday, it took me 2 hours and 10 minutes…

I was tired…

I was so tired I even sat in my car in the parking lot for about 20 minutes just trying to get psyched up (I’d been in Alaska heli-skiing at sea level for a month then immediately climbed the Pfeifferhorn then Little Chute the previous 2 days).

I ran into some rad people with Cardiff Snowboards on the way up and we all ended up on the summit together.

I even saw some folks speed flying off Baldy.

Oh, and Pipeline was open at Snowbird yesterday.

I was hoping the fierce winds the previous night might have buffed out the chute.

They hadn’t.

But they did kinda buff out the skier’s left of the chute.

903″ of snowfall this season at Alta has turned Main Chute into Main Bowl…

The thing is fat!

I wall-rode the skier’s left of the chute like a left-hand, peeling wave and it worked out pretty great.

That left side of Main Chute was wind buff smooth and skied well.

As I blasted out the bottom of the chute I had to pull over and gasp for air for about 2 minutes.

Pipeline at Snowbird was open yesterday. image: snowbrains

The hot pow below the chute was surprisingly good.

The groomer to the bottom was pure gold and I needed it…

I was very happy to be back in the car and the drive down Little Cottonwood Canyon was amazing due to the enormous avalanches and missing forests.