Wall to wall day at alta
Alta Ski Area has averaged 546″ inches/13.8 meters of snow each winter in the last 46 years. Lots of the terrain at Alta is steep north facing avalanche terrain. This makes for some great skiing when the conditions allow. Alta Ski Patrol uses a variety of tools to preform avalanche mitigation. This includes Wyssen towers, Avalaunchers, a Howitzer artillery gun, and hand charges thrown by ski patrollers during their morning “routes”.
While averaging that much snow, that means that avalanche conditions are constantly changing and often tricky for ski patrol to be able to open terrain. When the storm cycles line up just right, the snow conditions settle, ski patrol has time and the man power to run the routes necessary to open the entire mountain (aka “Wall to Wall”).
I started my day in East Castle. Hustled to the top of Mount Baldy and dropped into Little Chute. Finished the day with some hot laps with friends.
TeleTay 