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Report from April 30, 2021

I rolled up to Alta Ski Area in Utah yesterday at the crack of 1pm yesterday after getting my 2nd COVID Vaccine (check out the red bandaid on my left arm in the video above).

It was hot.

70ºF at the base…

Alta is closed for the season, but they are allowing uphill travel, which is terrific.

It had just snowed at Alta 2-3 days ago so I knew the snow was going to be sticky and nasty but I hoped that Main Chute had gotten skied up just enough and had gotten just enough shade throughout the morning that the snow would be ok in there…

A snowboarder in the lot said that he skied off the lower shoulder of Baldy and it was sticky the entire run.

There was only one way to find out for sure.

I headed up.

Only T-shirt and shorts required.

I was moving slow in the heat and I was still feeling very tired from a string of backcountry days in Alaska this week.

I’d just landed back in SLC on Thursday and was eager to get out and check out the Wasatch snowpack yesterday.

1 hour and 45 minutes of sweat-dripping, slow-walking brought me to the top of Mt. Baldy and the entrance of Main Chute.

The views of the Salt Lake Valley, Snowbird, & Mt. Superior are always grand up there.

I met a cool local cat named Chris and Portland, OR voyager named Alex.

We all hoped it would ski better than the snow we’d just climbed up but we were skeptical.

I took off my shirt & dropped first.

After 2 turns yelled back “It’s not too bad!”

I kept ripping down the chute and it was true that it wasn’t too bad.

About 1/2 way down the snow did start to become thicker and a bit stickier…

But it was still very much skiable and rhythm could be found.

On the apron, I cut right over to the wiggle, but it wasn’t that fun at it was super sticky and slow.

The ski down the upper groomer was sticky but fine.

The lower groomer skied pretty well as skier traffic had scraped off the stickiest snow.

It was really good to be back at the car getting those boots and socks off.

Another great day at Alta.

I’ll most certainly be back this week after this little bit of weather clears out.

Avalanche Forecast:

Weather Forecast: