ALTA, Utah, March 24, 2024 — Alta had received 17 inches of snow overnight. And another three inches of snow fell while we skied. Since it was late in the season, the mountain was uncrowded—we were one of the first to ride Supreme. My first run of the day was my favorite run of the 2023–2024 season:
My last run that day proved, once again, that you can always find fresh snow somewhere at Alta on a powder day, even if it’s only off of Vail Ridge under the Sunnyside lift. There always seems to be fresh snow there because beginners can’t handle the terrain, and advanced skiers don’t waste their time there because of the meager vertical and relatively tame terrain. But fresh snow is fresh snow, and there is nothing wrong with that!
Mindy and I had skied down to the Albion base from Supreme but decided to take one more run to give Mindy the opportunity to ski powder on the more forgiving terrain off the Sunnyside lift. She dropped into Blue Bell, and I skied to the end of Vail Ridge to find something steeper and fresher. I dodged a group of skiers who had gathered with their instructor and dropped into a wide-open slope of fresh snow. The snow was thicker than up top but still deep and good. I found a good rhythm, and my turns flowed perfectly to cap off one of the best days of the 2023–2024 ski season.
Honorable Mention
POWDER MOUNTAIN, Utah, Jan. 26, 2024 — My second-favorite run of the 2023–2024 ski season was at Powder Mountain in January with my friend Mark and his son Will.
We had ridden Mary’s lift and traversed all the way out above Cobabe Canyon. We had intended to drop in earlier, but we ended up atop the Magic Bus trail. We skied down through the trees unsure what we would find because of the convex slope. I emerged from the trees atop a wide-open slope of fresh snow (it was only a couple of inches of fresh snow on top of sun-affected crust, but no complaints). Will skied down to where I was and yelled back to Mark that the good stuff was there.
The slope angle was, of course, shallow—typical for Powder Mountain, it seemed. It was only a bit steeper than something like Blue Bell at Alta, but it was just steep enough to be great fun. And it was wide open. I skied it from top to bottom without stopping. I let out a loud “Wooo!” at the end of my run. I looked over at Mark, and we both nodded. We knew we had finally found what we were looking for.