Solitude trip report here...

Solitude trip report HERE

Don't want anyone to miss my tbest day of skiing in a long time...

What a day
When you go skiing in November, before thanksgiving day, you have certain expectations. groomers, rocks, and crowds.

Today, Woodsy blew my expectations away. My feeble ramblings can not touch on the penance ULLR gave this sinner today.

It began with a near miss, work needed me, I stomp in the front door dressed for skiing, flip the switch to turn thier "broken" POS system on, and right back in the truck heading for.....solitude. "what", you, the gentle reader gasp. "Not alta, or snowbird?" "Surely he has gone MAD!". And I had gone mad, mad with pleasure that will fill my soul for endless summers to come.

The day began meeting up with my venerable host and making our way to the sunset chair. This chair opened yesterday for the first time all season, and there were MAYBE 5 tracks down the face. I kept looking at it, looking at woodsy, and my mind was screaming LETS JUMP ON THIS!!!. He however, had bigger powder stashes to stake.

With my heart lurching inside of me I left the powder of sunset behind and boarded the summit chair. My heart couldn't take it any more. Untracked every where. Not the "untracked" where you can still see tiny swatches of fresh mired inbetween the sordid lovefest of dozens of skiers, but full bowls without a soul having touched them.

Then it dawned on me, no one was here. We had the mountain to ourselves and maybe a dozen other riders. This was a Saturday. LCC lines stretching to the horizon and I couldn't see the next person on the chairlift.

Back to the pow....Surely Woodsy would be satisfied with fresh bowls of snow, I was about to get some.

But wait, DAMN HIM!!!!! He is heading to the traverse!!! Up we go, now in an area of solitude I have never been. Higher and Higher we go. The snow is falling and the wind is HOWLING. Hell, in the parking lot the temp read 12 degrees. It must be sub zero up here.

On we tredged, the only reason this track was here was because the ski patrol had to use it to clear the canyon. Huffing and puffing I follow my guide.

Finally, he stops. Probably tired of my screams of ecstasy, literally, from viewing the huge expanse of complete, utter, bottomless fresh that was opening up to us.

"Here we are frozen". Then, with a grin wider than is allowed by law in utah, he drops in...and disapears. I watch the sheer beauty of it, I am in no rush, we are literally the only ones on this entire canyon wall.

Woodsy quickly disappears. The cold smoke that is Utah below freezing covering all trace of his existence. Still I watch his fall from grace down the slope. This is to much, I would be crying if my eyes were not solid ice.

My turn

I make that first, hesitant deep pow turn. Is it dust on crust?? Rocky, slabby???? I feel....nothing. The only thing keeping me afloat is my asteroids. My speed picks up. Really picks up, this is a damn steep slope.
Then, without expecting it, white room. Somebody is shooting me with dust. This isn't snow, this is feathers tickling my face. Back out into existence I explode out of the snow. Having been Baptized by uller his frosty air now burns my soul with confirmation. I am once again pure.

The rest of the day is sensory overload. We mine this one ridge without once having to cross anothers tracks. Moments stand out, but the rest is a blur.
I was a fat man at an all you can eat pie contest.
I remember a slope so steep one turn took me downhill through empty air for 20 feet, landing me on a baby pine that I slid like a park rail turned vertical. Back into the powder I went, the air was proving to heavy, the powder was lighter.

Finally, it was not lack of fresh tracks, or weariness that defeated us. It was the biting cold. Our cheeks once rosy were splotted with the first signs of frostbite.

This day was over. This day will last forever. Thanks woodsy. Thanks solitude.

For a number of reasons, I am facking verklempt.

Sweet write-up!!

Ha, when I first read this I thought Truth was part of the Solitude party, adding his own TR. I'm very happy for you, frozen, that you had a great day. Feel bad for Truth, though, that he's still in a flat, paved hell...