Apr 8 Easter and Grand Finale on Baldy

Hard to believe that this was our last day of skiing in Utah for the 2012 season. Time sure flies when you're having fun! We started the day at 2:50 am when the alarm went off for us to head to Snowbird for the sunrise Easter service on top of Hidden Peak (the tram summit). Who the heck set the alarm for 2:50 instead of 5:20?? Back to bed and up again at 5:20 to get to the Snowbird tram by 6:00 am. We arrived on the peak at 6:10 am in darkness except for the full moon to the west. Multiple fire pits were blazing and hot chocolate was being served. No sign of the Easter bunny up here!! We watched the sun rise over the Uintas to the east and listened to an inspirational "mountain top" sermon with our "attitudes of gratitude."

Here's how the day started:

After "church" we headed back down the canyon for a nap! This was going to be our rite of passage day on Mt Baldy and we needed to be well rested. By 12:25 pm we were back on the mountain at the top of Sugarloaf lift hitching our skis to our backpacks and readying for the mile hike to the summit of Mt Baldy. Marc Chrusch, a friend and co-worker from Heublein who is now a Salt Lake "local," was guiding us up to the summit so we could ski down Main Chute. I asked him for advice for this little adventure. He replied "don't f--k up"! Hmmm, that was reassuring.

We summited Mt Baldy in under 40 minutes - a piece of cake compared to Tuckerman's in NH! Here's proof that we were on the summit:

Now it was time to put on our skis!! Skiing along the ridge we arrived at the cornice above Main Chute. Fortunately it is a low snow year so the drop into the chute was only 3 feet but the "landing" was close to 50 degrees in slope and looked very firm. I volunteered to be the first to die!! Over the edge I went landing on both feet - half the battle is just getting in and I'd made it. Now I was hoping Marc and Mike would give me enough "space" to not take me out if they screwed up.

We all made it safely down the chute! Yeehawwwwwww! The adrenlin rush is addictive - we just might have to go to Jackson Hole next year to put Corbett's Couloir on our "been there, done that" list too.

In the photo below, Main Chute is the chute furthest to the right on Mt Baldy.

Ski bummin' in 2012 has been a blast. We look forward to our return to NH on Tuesday and re-uniting with all of our friends! Thanks for all of your good wishes for our adventure. Mike and Jean