Alta, Utah Day 2 (Wednesday 20 Feb)

Salutations, dudes and dudettes of the blogosphere. Ray here taking over the dankenski excellent powder adventure tour blog for our day spent at Alta, which was Wednesday, I believe. You'll find the attendant photos above. The day's highlight was the Dan and Ken Excellent Powder Adventure Team run beneath the Supreme lift. The Team encountered some of the finest snow of the day between the rocks and precipices of the Supreme lift.

Alta consists largely of large alpine bowls with subalpine fir and spruce trees at lower elevations. It made excellent fodder for the Adventure team's formidable alpine prowess, and righteous material for photos of rock formations.

Cade (Dad's roommate from Clarkson in '73) rejoined the Adventure for the day when we picked him up from his condo at Snowbird, right next to Alta. We spent the morning surveying the slopes from top to bottom under his guidance. Cade is a long time Alta veteran and he seemed slightly disappointed that the light snow falling on about two inches of fresh stuff was not falling on two feet of new powder. Being from back east, the rest of us were plenty happy with any fresh snow. Before lunch, Anita, Cade, Dad and I ventured down the bowls off of the ballroom traverse and cut some tracks down the wildcat slopes during the morning in fine style under light falling snow.

At midday the ranks of the Dan and Ken Excellent Powder Adventure Team swelled with the addition of Carol (Cade's wife), Ruth (Carol's sister), Amy (Carol's cousin), and Michael (Amy's rocket scientist) joined Cade, Anita, Dad (Ken), and myself. Due to his illness, Dan played a crucial moral support role from our condo in Park City. The team was a well oiled alpine strike force throughout the afternoon.

The hightlight Adventure was the run down under the Supreme chairlift from just under the cliffs - steep, narrow, some trees, great snow. See the photo of the Team ready to go thru the gate, then some more of the decent. The last photo is the cliff itself. I am pleased to report that no adventure team lives were lost during Anita's intrepid discovery of the proper route.

We wound down the day with cocktails at Carol and Cades's nearby condo, followed by a luxuriant meal atop the building. There, we met John, an affable Englishman who, along with his wife Ruth, generously took the bill for everyone's dinner. John had been layed out by a serious knee injury. He was bequeathed an honorary Dan and Ken Excellent Powder Adventure Team Membership. It was lively gathering. We discussed the love lives of elderly parents, rotten things kids do to teachers, military secrets and other high brow topics. Then rushed back to Park City to find Dan's condition unchanged from it's good natured, but heavily influenza-afflicted state.