New Year's Eve at Old Maid Flat (12/31/21)

Snow came very late to our mountain this season. But a big, low-elevation snow dump right before the new year had us itching to get out.

I was interested in something easy since I hadn't been on cross-country skis in a while. I thought a road would be good, and because the snow was so low, Old Maid Flat fit the bill.

We left home early on New Year's Eve morning. Snow started in Sandy, reinforcing that we didn't need to drive farther than Old Maid Flat to get our ski fix.

Traffic on Highway 26 came to a screeching halt shortly before the turn off. Also reinforcing our choice to stay lower on the mountain.

We were one of the first cars there. The new snow was already feet deep and still piling up, so we opted to park about a mile from the trailhead to avoid getting stuck down the access road. We have snow tires and four-wheel drive, but it was really deep. We'd also forgotten our snow shovel - out of practice for packing the car for winter adventure.

As we skied up the snowy access road, we saw two stuck cars (including a high-centered Tesla) and a stuck side-by-side four wheeler. We were glad we decided to park on the main road.

 

Since we were early, we saw just a handful of people on the trail. In fact, we were the first people to venture to the Ramona Falls "parking lot" that day. Breaking trail on loads of fresh powder is amazing - and also hard work!

We skied across to the river and stopped for a snack break.

It was super gorgeous with all the fresh, untracked snow!

As soon as we turned around, we hit the mid-morning crowds. We dodged skiers, snowshoers, sledders, dogs, walkers, families the whole way back to the car. The early bird certainly gets the worm!

Despite the crowds, it was a beautiful morning on the mountain to finish out 2021.