GMD DISPATCH: Week 5 - The Busy Season
Gold Miner's Daughter
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When we woke up Saturday morning, we knew it was going to be a unique day in Alta. Bombs rattled the Goldminer’s Daughter dining room windows as Interlodge kept those inside anxious. Rumors abounded but nobody really knew if the roads or mountain would open at all. The forecast called for 3 to 5 inches an hour and winds between 40 and 50, with gusts up to 100 miles per hour. The previous day, the Collins chair closed due to high winds and the avalanche forecast was considerable with enormous fractures seen throughout the canyon. While we waited for something to happen, lodge employees rallied doing foreign jobs to compensate for the absence of those unable to make it up the canyon. Others built a Trotsky (a communistic Shotski) to celebrate the birth of the Stanford-bound 18-year-old.
At noon, word leaked that Interlodge would be lifted in half an hour. It seemed dubious, but I put my gear on, ditched the visiting parents and three female friends and lined up at the Slopeside doors with my buddies. Eventually the voice of the GMD owner came over the radio, telling us to go for it. We dashed to the deserted lift line. One step closer, we waited for the lift to open as those from the Peruvian, the A-Lodge and the Rustler formed behind us. Once to the top, we cruised the High-T to High Boy. A group of about a dozen GMD employees ripped GS turns all the way down on fast, untouched snow. With the road still closed for a few more laps, the only people we had to compete with for fresh lines were our friends. It is a very good feeling to be on the right side of a closed mountain road – especially during the busy holiday season.
For the last couple of weeks the snow has been incredible, with 130 inches in December and no sign of it slowing down. But the area has been so busy the experience has seemed cheapened. Beater sightings have been off the charts – like the duo at the top of a ten-foot skiable pitch that threw their skis, poles and gloves to the bottom and yelled for help, or the guy who walked from the highway to the Alta Lodge in his socks with his boots slung over his shoulder. The number of rear-entry boots, Olins, fluorescent straps and awkwardly-carried skis had never been more copious than during the holiday season. So while the snow has been ridiculous, we’ve had to share it with these jamokes and then work our asses off to ensure their winter vacation is divine.
So to have the area entirely to Alta employees and the few guests that actually know what is going on, even just for a few runs, was a remarkable thing. On Sunday it continued to snow hard with 15 inches of accumulation throughout the day, but the day wouldn’t compare to the genuine experience of Saturday, while even for just three runs, Alta seemed like it was ours.
Waiting for the OK to go play
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