Every skier dreams of riding the Collins lift, staring up at High Rustler, and imagining the legendary Alf Engen effortlessly linking perfect turns through the powder on his wooden skis. It’s an experience that takes you to the core of the sport.
The jagged snow-covered peaks of the high alpine terrain in Little Cottonwood Canyon is alluring. This year the range is blanketed in more snow than ever in recorded history.
Today wasn’t a day for the High Traverse. Heavy snows from a week had settled in warming temperatures, and a chilly day kept the spring snow from turning to corn. Coming off the Sugarloaf lift, I slid towards Cecret Saddle underneath a redrock cliff band, stopping along the ridgeline before dropping down, simply to absorb the view.
Below me was Cecret Lake, where we hiked during the July wildflower season, completely hidden under perhaps 20 feet of settled snow. Up above, the imposing rock face of the iconic Devil’s Castle watched down on her empire, with snow snaking upwards on the lower flanks for a noticeably new look.
Back home in Park City, we’ve been blessed with 600 inches of snow this season. That’s 50 feet! A simple 10-minute drive put me onto some great ski slopes. But I’ve had this hankering to get over to Little Cottonwood Canyon which has had 50% more snowfall – around 900 inches.
Just think about those numbers for a minute.
Last Saturday’s trip to Little Cottonwood wasn’t about powder skiing. It was more about just being up in the mountains and looking at a new face to the landscape with the record snow.
Whether you are a skier or not, a drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon right now is an opportunity to see Mother Nature at her finest (or her worst). There are 64 noted avalanche paths in Little Cottonwood – known as the most dangerous stretch of mountain highway in the world for its slide potential. Over the past few weeks, nearly every one of those slide paths has given way, scalloping the landscape and leaving us with a new respect for the power of nature.
It was a gorgeous, bluebird Saturday as I headed up state route 210 – Earth Day at Alta. In the lower reaches of the canyon, it was just a nice spring day. But beginning at Tanner’s Flat, the devastation became vivid with multiple slides funneling together to blanket the highway. The stretch through the White Pine slide paths was filled with trees, rock and debris. Huge swaths of snow carved pathways off the peaks from Monte Christo to Superior to Cardiff Pass. The main road from Snowbird to Alta was impassable, traffic routed via the bypass road for safety.
Standing in the saddle above Ballroom at Alta, I could feel the freshness on the alpine landscape surrounding me. New snow still hung off every peak and rock face. Across the valley, Mount Superior stood proudly, a beacon in one of the world’s most spectacular ranges.
As the afternoon wore on, I decided to make one drop down into Snowbird’s Mineral Basin. It was a busy place with the opening day of the new Woodward Mountain Park atop Baldy Express. The southern exposure offered sun-baked runs and a spring skiing diversity that hadn’t quite hit Alta’s northerly-facing slopes that day.
Sliding back into Alta, I cruised under East Baldy for the run down to the Wildcat base. Everywhere I looked was an alpine panorama decked out in white.
A day at Alta is good for a skier’s soul!