Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Good, but could have been great

This morning at Brighton would have been amazing had I only made it up Big Cottonwood Canyon before it closed at 8:15 AM. Here's the first text sent by the Sheriff's Department at 6:30 AM:

Both BCC & LCC will be closed this morning for avalanche control.

Given that Little Cottonwood Canyon (LCC) has been closed since Tuesday night, I interpreted this message to mean that both canyons were closed. Previously I had planned to meet a friend at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon (BCC) at 8 AM to carpool up. I forwarded the above text to him and assumed I would stay at the house a bit longer before driving up. At 8:06 AM I received the following text from the Sheriff's Department:

Big Cottonwood will close at 8:15 AM - 9:00 AM for avalanche control

I panicked, quickly packed the car, and took off without eating breakfast to try and get up the canyon before 8:15 AM. Unfortunately I reached the canyon at 8:20 AM which, after hearing on KSL that BCC would close at 8:30 AM, I thought would still be ok. As is often the case, however, the news report was incorrect and the canyon had closed on schedule. I didn't realize this until I came to a stop 3 minutes later. So, for nearly an hour, I sat in my parked car (turned off mind you, unlike many others who kept theirs idling the entire time) thinking of the powder turns I was missing in the Milly Bowl (which never opened yesterday). Not helping my mood were the following texts my friend (who had, when he received my first text about the canyon's being closed, immediately driven up BCC since it was still open at that point) sent:

I got up early, I was going to wait for you but not if it's closing

I'm going to be first in line today

The latest says they are closing bcc from 8:15 to 9:00 so you can still make it up if you hurry


Me: Son of a $!&. I'm screwed

Sorry man, I'm already in the parking lot

Me: I'm stuck in the canyon. Save some pow for me!

No way

I pulled into the Brighton parking lot at 9:31 AM. Looking up at Milly Bowl I could see a lot of tracks, but still plenty of fresh. The session was good, but I had a tough time enjoying it as I knew I'd missed out. Listening to my friend talk about how the first 5 runs were some of the best in his life each time up the chair didn't help my mood. Even now, at 6 PM, I'm still bitter about getting caught by the closure. At least now I'll know better for the future.

Happy 50th day on skis this season to me!

4 comments:

Bart G said...

You need to start touring in order to cure your powder addiction. You ski fresh snow in any time you want. After a while powder gets boring and you start to look for more interesting snow.
Maybe next year...

KDAY Racing said...

Congrats on the 50! that's a whole lot better than me this year.

UtRider said...

Bart - My plan for the summer/fall is to piece together the gear I'll need to hit the BC next season. I can't think of snow more interesting than powder but then again at the start of last season I was loving the groomers so obviously things change as your skills evolve.

KDay - I'd like to get together with you next season for a proper tour of Snowbasin.

Forrest said...

"After a while powder gets boring and you start to look for more interesting snow."

Bart powder never gets boring! Maybe you should start boarding? At least for me powder never gets boring, only more exciting everytime I ride it. But I do love the windbuff, heavy cream, corn, etc... but the pow always is at top of the list.