Today was definitely not one of the better days in the Wasatch this season. In fact, it was pretty crappy today. The day started out decent enough, we got to the Zoom lot at 8:20. It was noticeably warmer, putting on boots wasn't uncomfortable at all. We chilled out at the car till almost nine and joined a tiny lineup, The snow was nice and chalky first thing in the morning, we spun a few laps on Zoom and headed to the tram. The winds were pretty stiff in the morning and gained speed as the day went on.
When we loaded the red tram we were told it was the last for a while and probably for the day. When I loaded I saw something I'd never seen before, they had four 55 gallon barrels full of water each lashed to one of the poles inside the tram. The winds were so fierce they needed weight in the tram when they came down unloaded. I usually grab a spot along the rail by the tram operator. On this ride we had two operators and they were chatting about how the operator up top in the blue tram was nervous about coming down past the top tower. We headed up and got about 200 yards up, slowed down and stopped. We sat there for a few seconds and then headed down. We got almost to the tram base, stopped for a few seconds and then headed back up again. We slowed near the spot we'd last stopped at, kept going and then speeded up once past. A sigh of relief could be heard in the tram as we kept going upwards. The operators were paying keen attention to each tower we approached, there were gusts of 60 mph on our way up and they said it'd hit 80 at times.
At top they again told us the tram was done but they'd be opening Peruvian. We hit up the Peruvian side and other than a bulletproof top of Chip's Ahoy it skied very well, more of chalky goodness. We took the Rothman Way to the top of Harper's and stood there for a minute watching the Peruvian spin, saw a couple of patrollers go up but no chairs loading other than that. We figured we would take a lap on Zoom and see what happened with Peruvian. We found fantastic snow on Harper's, styrofoam with some gun powder mixed in here and there. We found a bit of a line at Zoom and rode it to the top. From about the restaurant up the winds were pretty harsh, although it was 43 degrees at the base the 60 mph winds made it a touch uncomfortable. What was chalky goodness earlier had been turned to icy nastiness. Wherever was exposed to the wind was now bulletproof. Usually you can glide past the ice and pick your spots to turn, the wind took that option away as it scoured off any loose snow dislodged by edges.
Once you got below the summer road to the top of Emma the snow was good again, we decided the top section of Zoom wasn't worth skiing and headed down the Bass Highway to check on Peruvian. We got to where we could see the line for the lift and saw all of the line start heading our way towards Zoom, shut down. The wind wouldn't even let them run Peruvian, we decided that was the end of our day as we weren't willing to lap the icy top of Zoom with now the entire resort load of people. We went to the car and hung out for about a half hour watching to see if we could see Peruvian running again. We gave up around noon and headed home with hopes for better snow next weekend. It isn't always rainbows and unicorns in the Wasatch.
It was pretty windy today, didn't get out my phone much. Here's a shot looking back up at the tram as the wind was battering me.
They took the Obell X up on the Superior ridge line, you can see it from the Zoom lot. It's the object in the middle upper of the pic along the ridge line. It looks to me that they put it at the top of Suicide Chute.
For perspective here is a picture of it in the tram plaza this summer.
I'm hoping for a big season in the LCC, we've been deprived the last few years, we're due....
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