Report from January 30, 2023

Today was my last day in Utah for a while.

I wanted to do something memorable and we’d seen that the Devil’s Castle zone had opened at Alta yesterday for the first time this season (East Castle opened today for the first time as well – Baldy Chutes tomorrow?).

I’d never skied that zone and my curiosity was piqued.

I showed up at about 10am with the express goal of hitting a jump I’d seen videos of yesterday and throwing a backflip or 3.

I found the jump and the landing was pretty beaten up.

So I moved on and simply started zig-zagging through the woods looking for something neat.

I saw a cliff sign and was drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

Right away I saw that there was a skinny little chute (Elevator Chute was the name I later learned) just wide enough for my 182cm skis.

I carefully worked my way into it and practiced my double pole plant jump turns.

Fun!

Then I went back and skied it a bit faster with fewer turns.

Then I saw another chute from the chairlift that looked neat (Sneaky Pete).

This one had better snow and a larger caliber.

Some soft turns, some firm turns, some rocks, and some chopped up high speed turns to end it.

Perfect.

I found that I could connect these two chutes in one run and lapped them about 5 times.

It was incredibly hot which made me tired and thirsty fast.

Martin showed up about noon and showed me around a bit which was terrific.

I headed home after about 4 hours of skiing feeling very satisfied.

Ski day #49 for the year and #354 since December 8, 2022.

Thanks, Utah!

Snow Numbers

Forecast

Photos