And so it starts. It was a bit delayed: too busy with work and too little snow. Starting at the Alta parking lot, the obligatory starting photo of Superior.
It was sunny and cold. Since the big storm last weekend, a few inches of light density snow had fallen. The S faces has seen quite a bit of traffic and were now crusted. I ascended to Flagstaff. The skin-track was in good condition and I made the true summit in good time.
It certainly looked like winter over in Cardiac. At this point, the sun disappeared and the wind picked up a little on the ridges.
The higher N-facing were still potentialy unstable. Underneath the now compacted storm snow was a still-weak layer of facets from the early season snow. The order of the day was skiing the E-facing lines in Days. I dropped in just off the Flagstaff summit skiing a NE aspect in Days West Bowl. Coverage was decent at higher elevations and there was still plenty of powder to be found.
Ascending from the flats, I then took a true East facing line in Days West Bowl.
Back up again, and then traversing N along Reed and Benson Ridge, to ski the E facing line in Main Days. This was a bit bony in places.
Lunch was taken at the bottom of Main Days
I ascended again to the top of the West Bowl, skiing one more line there and managing a fairly spectacular wipe out after hitting a rock. Conveniently this occured right next to the skin track..and yes it was busy in Days today. From the flats, I went straight up the regular exit for Upper Days, traversing E along Emma Ridge and skiing a quite good line back to the car. The snow didn't have that much of a crust on it and for good measure, there was a mini-bushwhack at the bottom. Not a bad start to the year, with 5,500ft logged.