Day 32 - Friday Feb. 16 - An Afternoon in the Trees

I met Matt (the dude I carpool with for our snow science course) at the mouth of Little Cottonwood around 1:15 and we made our way up to Alta. As we got there we were met by Kris, the TA, saying that class was cancelled due to the high avalanche danger. Now, don't let this lead you to believe that I was not safe this morning, because I was. But the study plot we were going to be spending the afternoon in for class just happens to be in a major runout zone of the Flagstaff slide path. With the blessing of our instructor we decided that Mill D up Big Cottonwood canyon would be plenty protected and a nice place to enjoy the afternoon. So Matt, Paige, and I made our way over there and began a short tour. It was nice to tour with a smaller group as opposed to class where we rarely tour with any fewer than 7 or 8. Mill D is filled with aspen trees and you really have to navigate your way through them, but it was definitely protected. We got some good turns in, but still not the greatest because this very dense snow. Paige was loving it because she just bought some K2 Anti-Pistes that are like 110 under foot. She had no problem staying on top of that stuff. We made a couple laps and then began our way back to the car. It was nice to get out with some new people. Skiing is fun.