I went skiing at Alta last Saturday. Alta had just finished getting 17" of fresh brand new Utah signature fluffy white powder, on top of the 8 inches prior to that, on top of the 160" base they already had. It was a banner ski day, I actually choked one time on some powder that flew up in my face while I was swooshing down a big steep barely tracked hill! I met a guy from New England (based on his unmistakable accent) who was about 50, he said he had skiied only 2 days like that his entire life. I thought to myself, "Ha, ha you poor sap, living on the East Coast! I had a dozen or more days like this before I was even 18 years old!"

Not that I think everybody on the East Coast should move out here, I'm just glad I don't live out there in that crowded rat experiment of Metropolis.

By the way, Alta has a bunch of new high speed quad lifts that cut their normal long lift lines down to about 25% of what they used to be, there is a new mid-mountain shelter that is really nice and serves the usual ski-resort food (dry burgers, dry chicken sandwiches, chili, soup, and plenty of french fries). Plus, the resort's ban against slowboarders, I mean snowdorkers, I mean... well, you get the idea, leaves the snow in excellent condition for much longer periods of time (nobody squeegeeing the soft snow off the hardpack as they skid down the hill sideways), and there were no random large packs of knuckledraggers camped out LAYING around so you can't see them behind knolls etc. Not that I spent a lot of time on the groomed runs anyway, but I do find it particularly irritating when I am trying to do a speed run and I come upon 3-4 groups of 7-10 people just lounging about in the middle of the run.