The National Weather Service couldn’t decide what the storm was going to do. Two days out they were calling for 5-9″. By T-minus-24 they’d upped that to 7-14″ but then just as quickly backed those numbers way down when the front split around the Wasatch. So I was surprised to wake up and see Alta reporting 15″.

Sure the temps were well below zero with ridgeline windchill some scary number around -30F, but it hadn’t snowed much for a week and finding a couple powder-fixated partners wasn’t hard. Bundled warmly, we went for a tour.

The wind was kicking and it was carrying away plumes of the light density snow in a way that made it look like the mountains were burning. That wind was also drifting the new snow into slabs that we kicked off as we walked above them on the ridgeline. The final tally included occasional face shots and zero frostbitten appendages. Not bad.