After a brief negotiation at Snowbasin on the last run, we all agreed that the best way to finish our last two days of skiing would be Solitude on Thursday, followed by Alta again on Friday. John had heard that many of the Salt Lake City public schools had Friday off, and snow was due to fall Thursday night. Since more kids are snowboarders than skiers (Alta doesn't allow snowboards), and since Alta is amazing with fresh snow, it seemed like a clear choice for Friday. My Day 5 was also the first day of skiing for Andy and Dave.
When I saw the "Caution Cliff Area" sign, my initial reaction was to veer away. But then I decided to take a closer look, and I discovered that it was only about a 4-foot drop, and pretty easily inclined. There were a few rocks peeking through the snow at the bottom to deal with, but it seemed pretty straightforward. I was right, and had no trouble. Then I went looking for John, who was waiting on a little rise on the groomer. I decided to ham it up and get some air, but executed it very poorly, slamming into the snow bank on the other side. John wished he had a video camera of his own trained on me.
Jerry dropped his glove on the way up the chair. This is usually a very unpleasant experience, because it means you have to expose your bare hand to ski-speed winds in freezing cold temperatures. But Thursday was very warm: 34 F. So I saw no reason not to mess with the old man a bit. Luckily, Jerry thought it was as funny as I did.
John, Jerry, and I spent most of the afternoon in Honeycomb Canyon. This is a black-diamond and double-black-diamond area, and is accessible at the top of the canyon by riding Summit chair. From there one decides whether to ski the left or right flanks of the canyon, or the mostly-groomed section right down the middle. Farther down the canyon, the right side is primarily trees climbing up the wall. John, Jerry, and I wandered through these trees for quite a while; it made for a very peaceful and enjoyable run. I boil it down to the best parts in this video.
Raw Video for Day 5
1: Challenger, off of Eagle Express
2: Trees under Eagle Express
3: Trailing Jerry under Eagle Express
4: Trees under Apex
5: Gate off of Summit chair
6: Summit Cliffs and Glove Keepaway
7: Scenery shot of Jerry in Honeycomb Canyon
8: John and Jerry skiing Honeycomb Canyon
9: Left side of Honeycomb Canyon
10: Right side of Honeycomb Canyon (part 1 and part 2)
11: Aspens under Apex
12: More aspens under Apex
13: Final Honeycomb Canyon run
(7/24/2011: I have removed the raw video from Google Document storage. If you would like a copy of a specific video, let me know.)
Next: Day 6
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