Rarely does Canyon Blog issue public service announcements, but such are the dire circumstances that it’s demanded of your correspondent in the interests of your health and mental state of mind. With that out of the way, here’s the deal. Whatever you’re doing, and regardless of where, you simply need to stop, book a flight, toss on a few layers of gear, and slap some fiberglass or carbon to the bottom of your feet.
As your correspondent writes this (March 29th) Alta is reporting 764” for the season, but that’s simply not going to be true by the time you read these words. That’s because by tonight another 10” will magically have fallen. And by the weekend as much as another 20” may have descended upon Little Cottonwood.
As the teaser and banner photo this month reveal, Road to Provo hasn’t been open for days, and may not for another handful yet. How can that be at the end of March/beginning of April you ask? Good question, for which the answer is irrelevant. Because who cares?
What matters to you is that you want to be here when the Provo rope does drop. Alta is already staying open every day till April 23rd. As for Snowbird, with its greater freedom to extend the season, who knows? This could be one of those seasons when you’re on the tram with boards in hand on July 4th.
As the photos show, the mountains of Alta and Snowbird are glowing and blowing with a magical amount of snow. The result being that the entire mountain skis different than you’re likely to recall in recent memory. The 20+ foot cornice at the top of Sugarloaf lift (photo 2 above) should give you some idea of just how much. And Powderbird even agreed to stage a helo for one panorama as you can see, so be sure to hit them up in the next three weeks for any end of seasons deals.
As for a final season snow tally, Canyon Blog swears by this number: 800. If Alta’s official station doesn’t record 800” by the time Wildcat’s last chair rounds the top bull wheel your correspondent offers a free beer or hot chocolate to any reader of this space. Is he worried about going broke one draft or cocoa at a time? Not likely…
P.S. March 30th: Well, it’s already dropped another 20” for a total of 784” but if you can track Canyon Blog down BEFORE we hit 800” the beer/chocolate offer stands. Our 211” base is nearly equal to half of all last year’s snowfall.
