bailed out of work a little early and made it up to Summit West for their highly ceremonious (all of 5 skiers) 4pm Wednesday first opening since Sunday. The groomers ranged from carvey to crusty depending on sun-warming.
The snow that fell Sunday night and Monday was predictably heavy after lying there for a couple of days (no, I wasn't lying there watching the snow lay there; I'm taking license and giving the snow some agency...), with a little breakable crust in the places where the sun had been on it, which was basically everywhere except right next to the trees looker's left of the Wildside lift. Here one could make normal powder turns. On a snowboard anyway.
Okay so it was Summit West, and the snow was heavy, and the angles pretty low, and the lifts pretty slow, and the rides pretty short. But is was untracked and next to vacant, and off the Wildside lift one can log a surprising amount of airtime if one chooses, with all the fireroads, tree stumps, short steep roll-overs, and, yes, couple of actual cliffs one might find if one is creative and one ignores signs that say things like "cliff." I'd venture that in about a dozen runs all totalled, I spent maybe close to one of them falling through open air -- and does it get any steeper than falling through open air? I think not.
Now that I've recreated Summit West as a hidden urban Jackson Hole, I'll return to reality and note that lower elevation touring might hold up for a few more days. I'd look for trees and/or shady exposures. Silver Peak, for instance, might still be fun in the forest (or it might suck - I've got pretty poor snow-dar).
