Jan 16-17 and 19-20, 2006, Salt Lake City

A combination of work and family time coincided beautifully this year with good snow. Many are familiar with these areas, so briefly: We explored some 10 minute hike-to terrain at Brighton that was waist-deep and tasty with a touch of pucker factor. We chose Solitude the day after the storm. As usual the place was absolutely deserted, and Honeycomb Canyon was spectacular; we were getting untracked lines all day. Today, Alta opened some areas for the first time since a recent dump and a truly impressive ant-line of traverser/hikers ventured forth to find untracked snow in the areas I think are called Devil's Castle and East Castle. We joined. My son and alpine skier friend got a lot of face shots, but I noticed as a slower velocity telemarker, farther away from the leading ski tip, and no doubt wimpy and tentative too, I was not getting the face shots the alpine skiers were. Perhaps the most impressive thing was the shear number of skin tracks and backcountry descent lines across Little Cottonwood from Alta. Literally the slopes were covered with sinuous, beautiful tracks. Quite a community.