After a Sunday spent on the groomers in Park City, I had Monday AM to myself. It was a beautiful cold, sunny day. My plan was to go to Cardiff and cover as much ground as I possibly could in the time available. Starting from the parking lot at Alta, Superior was looking quite tasty.
Travelling light, I beat my record to the pass, taking 36 minutes. When I got there, I certainly was NOT expecting to see this:
Well, it didn't look anything like that: firstly the shot was taken from Flagstaff, and secondly Sunday was bluebird, but Upper Cardiff with NO TRACKS IN IT ON A HOLIDAY WEEKEND. I could hardly believe my luck: was the skiing that bad? The wind had certainly beem blowing a bit from the NW but had it trashed the snow that badly? There were a couple of groups ahead of me, presumably Superior-bound. I dropped in through the Keyhole. Two slightly crusty turns later, I was skiing powder.
I wasn't really sure what was going on, but I was fairly confident that the skiing in Cardiac was not going to suck. I hammered it up Powerline Ridge to the top, before skiing the NW shot to the bottom of Cardiff Moraine. That was good too. Faced with the choice of Cardiac Ridge or Cardiac Bowl, with the increasing daytime heating I went for the Bowl. At this point there was a group ahead of me ascending Cardiac Bowl. Determined not to let them beat me to the goods, I went in persuit, only to find out that it was TB with a couple of clients. Like the masses gathering on the ridgeline above, they were also going for Superior.90 minutes later I had three laps under my belt in Cardiac Bowl from the Chutes to the lower Moraine. Apart from two guys who skied down the lookers-right chute, everyone else went to either Mineral or Superior. The skiing in Cardiac was fantastic. Sure it wasn't epic blower, but just easy, carvable, soft windboard (OK you could see some of the old tracks) and everyone was walking straight past it. Where was the camera when I needed it?
Despite the heat there was zero wet activity, so a quick call to TB later, it appeared that Superior was good to go. Finally, after all these years, it was mine! Except that it wasn't really mine because 20 people had skied it earlier. Still, skiing right off the top at 12:45pm on a warm sunny day was well worth it. After the first pitch I stayed far skiers right. The snow was soft the whole way down, though after 7,100' and 11 transitions in 4hrs 45 mins, I was a bit tired. I ended the morning perfectly with a walk back to the car and 400' extra.
A bit of rest and a cup of tea later, I went for a stroll up Grizz with YC.
On the way up we saw a nice example of a 360...
..and a nice example of a forward-loop-come-face-plant.
One of the best touring days. Skied better powder, but I don't think that I've ever charged as hard. Chuck in Superior and a PM stroll in the sunshine to get to 8,800' and there you have it.