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Show { ‘ Cart Live t 31 January Ee STR IETS Vapmdstap a Nisipe Reng std Rania Sis catia Rie a eal dalle) 1996. pope owder with a passion, Powder with a Vengeance by Creighton Hart The storm of ‘96 finally found its way to the Wasatch Range and will certainly go down in the annals of time as a memorable one. We had deep 4% density snow. 100 plus MPH winds. Day long lift lines that started at the 7-11 or the I-215 interchange, or several days locked down in interlodge; this was quite a storm cycle. I certainly believe one of our Kahunas in the mid-Pacific isles of Hawaii drummed up some cosmic sea water and sent it along the jet streams to merge with beard to belabor the difficulty of interlodge. “How can I make a flight reservation when you won’t even tell me when the road will-be open again.” She did not find the answer to her satisfaction. As we clean up and get ready for the next round it was interesting to see all of preparation. The Alta cat crew was busily cleaning the roof of their building with a large snowblower, while the Albion Grill crew used snow saws to cut double head high _ chunks of snow off the roof. the awesome polar air to deliver us starved powder fanatics some blessings. Blessing in the amounts of 10. to {2 feet of. Hallelujah. Interestingly was at times too inconsistencies that. white fluff. Nt looks like This storm was a_ sound argument to the development of a mass transit/Park and Ride system along some one took a the southern benches and _ the canyons. At one time Mayor Watson enough the snow of Alta in the 1920’s and 1930's deep to ski, or had operated a railway up the due to the high and gave it a clean canyons transporting visi__winds that packed the surfaces. One sail tors to and from the valley to shave.” not to complain, it is blissful snow the base of the mining comto ski. An answered prayer, from all — | munity. Possibly a system of ]} the heavenly snow gods. modern technology and covA warning to all those backcountry enthusiasts: ered avalanche tunnels could resolve this the snow conditions are unstable at the time of this ‘bumper to bumper automobile train. In con- razor to the slope writing. The surest example of this is the results of the Argenta slide in Big Cottonwood, which closed _ the canyon for a day. This impressive force of moth- _ versations between local officials of Alta and the UTA discussion has centered upon the congestion of the traffic in the two er nature deposited 12 to 16 feet of material along the road. One included the clear cut timber of 3000 feet of forest. “It looks like some one took a razor to the slope and gave it a clean shave.” stated Bob, a driver in the canyon. According to the reports from — some old timers this was a once in 50 to 60 year Slide. Other avalanche activities took their toll on the Alta Town truck, leaving the front door ajar and _ unclosable. Many fractures lines were to be found along the Meadow Ridge lines in Big Cottonwood, as well the entire Little Cloud area. Snowbird slid big, 6 to 8 feet, on January 21, stated Liz Scully an employee for the corp. The following day the Alta ski patrol was able to get the same aspect of Mt. Baldy to slide at great depths. So logic would deduce that most north to north east facing aspects have the potential to slide to the bed surface, so beware. | : While some of you may have avoided the three to five mile lift lines that formed at the mouths of both canyons, I certainly can say that they were interesting in the least. The feast or famine snow cycle had the Salt Lake Valley in a frenzy for skiing, which led to the worst canyon traffic conditions in the last few years. Drive times from the valley to the resorts was often measured in hours, not minutes during the last two weeks. Employers, Employees, and guests have all been mightily tried by this storm cycle. Chef Bruce Phillips of Snowbird was , unable get to work for overa | week. He lives in Big Cottonwood and commutes to Little Cottonwood. When one canyon was. open. the other was closed, and when both were open the traffic was too. prohibitive to allow travel. One Snowbird guest was canyons. While an updated master plan is in the works, | skiers can contribute to the elimination of autos by car pooling, riding the buses and of course hitch-hiking. Many a day a single driver in an > empty pick up truck has passed me by and I wonder why. Lets grow and share the rides. The Swiss have adopted a program called Ride Share in which autos © are owned co-operatively and rides are utilized mutually. In three years they have removed a total of 6000 plus cars and saved an estimated 600,000 gallon of gas. If it takes a major snow storm to show the traf- fic problems of having 4 major resorts in the suburbs then more... let it snow : some more sa CANYON and more and : DESIGNS : Designers of Handcrafted Gold and Silver Jewelry Holiday Specials *Jewelry * Cool Tunes — Canyon Employees Discount- Snowbird Resort Center P.O. Box 920070, 84092 801.742.2122 Present Pass. — Bargain! Bargain! Bargain! CECA UMC ROMO CAMeNU alt eee the first year low price of ¢Z0. Next year it’s gonna he like fifty bucks, maybe even a cool hunski. So pony up the cash. Make your checks payable to: Dinner 7 days a week _ Wasatch Canyon Reporter. PO Box 3118 Alta UT 34092 We start publishing Bi-weekly this month so now is the time to leap on the EVGA EZUHLH) 7 LE Solitude Ski Resort Rati e RO oe AEA ARETE seas Big Cottonwood Canyon* Utah Sate Zip . a a> mo eee ae a eee Fanerrnnenecnennnrcnee | VISA/ MC # (We don't take them but we'll he happy to use it to buy ourselves some sweet new equipment) |