Alta Utah, I didn't know I was only 18" tall...

Powder chasing mission gets DEEP when Alta under-reported their 3 feet as 18 inches. Canyon avy control closure delays lead to a high return on investment for the patient and determined.

On a whim I decided to go storm chasing until SIA at the end of the month. This last minute decision led me to rendezvous with my room-mates of last season, Jameson and Anna, who are on a winter-long storm chasing mission in their rv. First stop, Salt Lake City, Utah.

It was hard to leave BC as we were getting pounded at home in Whistler, and it was a long drive through the night to get here. We decided on Alta resort, as none of us had ever skied there before.

Driving in circles, in a truck packed with dirty ski bums. Unfortunately today wasn't shower day. Neither was yesterday.

The canyon was closed til 12 noon as they were doing Avalanche Control in Little Cottonwood so we turned around more than once to go wait in the RV. It looked like most people had given up by 10am, and had gone elsewhere or returned home. They only reported 18" of fresh, what's the big deal, right?

Unloading at the truck.

Eventually, we got the go ahead and were on our way. When we arrived around 12:30 the lifts hadn't cracked yet, and we waited patiently with the rest of the dedicated few for around 45minutes, and let me tell you, it was worth it.

Helping Ski-Patrol with their minor technical difficulties.

When the first skier loaded the chair, the 200+ people waiting at the bottom errupted in cheering. Minutes later, we watched that same happy skier in red make his way down the lift line choking on ridiculous over the head blower all the way down. Everyone had the bottom was all tightly wound in anticipation for their own faceshots.

The dedicated.

This was the first shot of the day, Miss Anna Boone herself. Not that you can really see a skier under all that snow. Her doctor claims she's 5'5". Alta's reporting begs to differ.

 

Jameson, gettin' some Alta style.

...and he blows past the photog, neck deep. Anna catches the action.

I found myself infront of the lens eventually, and loved every second of choking on that light fluffy Utah pow that seems so foreign to us west-coasters.

All smiles here!

The sun even managed to poke out through the clouds for a moment here and there.

Anna, completely Whiteroomed again. Business as usual.

Jameson .0001 seconds before smacking the photog in the head with his pole. But who could be mad with an end result like this?

More fluffy goodness. I think Utah is growing on me, despite their 3% beer.

The elusive Miss Boone again, you can ALMOST see her this time. ALMOST...

How often do you see photogs smile?

More neck deep goodness. It was like this ALLLLL DAAAAAAY. Oh yeaaah.

Since we never see more than Anna's head and poles we invested in high-vis headgear for her. Coming soon, levitating frog.

I'll leave you with one last photo, to leave you wishing you had been here too.

 

For more on Jameson and Anna's winter long storm-chasing adventures check out their site at www.Powtopia.net

For more shenanigans from Nadia, check out www.NadiaSamer.com

Thank you again to Connie at Alta for making one more adventure possible.

 

 

 

 

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