With interlodge in effect up at Alta and an “estimated”  canyon opening at 10:30, the time was right to hit Snowbasin. Talk about good timing! The storm produced as much snow at Snowbasin as it did at Alta, and they were looking to open some terrain for the first time all year. It felt like the perfect amount of snow. Of the 24″ that fell, the first 12″ was pretty dense, and the second 12″ was a lot lighter… its always nice having a right side up storm!

As it was the first legit storm of the year it was also my first time in deep powder on next years Salomon Rocker2 115s. I ski these with the, also new, Salomon Guardian AT binding, and the combination is superb! I will discuss the skis and bindings more later on, but believe me… this is IT.

I didn’t grow up in UT, I moved here about 11 years ago. What kept me here? A little place called Alta. Alta has the feel of a small town ski area. There are no mega lodges or valet parking. There are lots of old folks and kids and stretch pants and ski sweaters and tons of good vibes. Of course there’s is also tons of snow and the lifts run until 4:30. If you are a beginner, you can ski free after 3 on the sunnyside chair. Yep, Alta is home to some of the nicest people in the world.

Great work going on in the ski film production these days. In every element of the process, these guys are simply amazing.

These were some of the most fun runs of the season. Snowbird is an amazing mountain and the spring there can’t be beat. Ron Mason and I hiked to the top of the twins and skid Germicide and then hiked Baldy and skied pearless into Alta. Germicide was the steepest skiing I did all year!

Extra cold temps makes for extra blower pow… Snowbird gets a ton of pow but we don’t get cold smoke like this very often. Definitely a day to bundle up!

Kinda just rolled up on this one… well not exactly… With most ridges being guarded by big overhanging cornices, it’s a little tough to get a look at things.  But after looking back on this beauty, I promptly hiked back up the ridge and dropped from a fairly safe spot… minus the extremely low hanging avy line I had to duck .

Ron Mason took a nice picture of the line and then dropped a nice chute around the corner, further down the ridge.

Spring can be a little depressing sometimes…you know, with all the snow melting and all… Luckily there are spring storms that bring us right back to the heart of winter. After this one, Alta & Snowbird were within 4″ of having a 200″ base (~16′) and over 600″ on the year!

The snowpack in the Wasatch is extremely deep this year, lots of great areas are filled in nicely, making some good gettins after these spring storms.

This time around, conditions were not as ‘all time’ as back in ’07 but they were good enough to put it down in similar fashion (minus the 2nd half). Hopefully we’ll be seeing the footage in an episode of Salomon Freeski TV next year (fingers crossed!).

This is the line viewed from Alta’s GMD.