Liam,
Another great find! The video opens with some skiing from 1946, my birth year (yup, I'm a certified old guy)
Alta is also the first place that I climbed for turns. In my early days, we would rent Rossignol Haute Route skis, pencil sticks with a very soft tip on powder days. The tips were so soft that the rental policy was - You break 'em, you bought 'em. Never was there during the powder shown in the video, came close once but the upper mountain was closed for avalanche control, and, the Alta lift system was maddeningly slow.
I'm certain that Alf got on the lifts far ahead of the typical customer and what we are seeing are first runs, al la Warren Miller, et al, show today. I salute what those guys did.
its pretty similar to what we do to this day.
the new equipment just let us surf the crap while still bottom feeding in powder while going faster.
and I am going to keep posting this picture until I stop reading about how the old school skiers were deeper in powder.
Josh,
As you skied Little Cottenwood Canyon for a few years, you must have encountered similar snow. My guess is the ability to get really deep into powder has to be a function of both the snow depth and very dry snow. I would think that even with modern equipment, there should be days when the magic combination exists, permitting the effects shown in the photo you shared, which is visually stunning.
But, I would have to think that a 230 lb. Alf Engen, on skinny skis, has to get down lower into very light powder that you on modern skis.
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