Thread: UT trip help? Which lift served?

Stolen from shortyadams sweet, sweet new bike thread:

Originally Posted by JoshP

Sundance (near Provo) is open and spectacular right now. Deer Valley and Wolf Mountain (Ogden area) open this weekend.

I've ridden at DV and liked it. How do Wolf Mountain and Sundance compare?

Sundance is less techy, but has amazing twisty singletrack. The lift is slow, but it's really scenic, the riding is fun and flowy, and there's a great deli/shop to get sandwiches and a cool bar to hang out at afterwards. Some of the trails are more super-D-ish with some pedaling, and there's a DH race course that has a couple techy spots and some fast open sections. I think it's the BoneYard area that has the twisty trees that are just a blast to ride. I could do that all day. I just wish the lift ran faster.

Wolf Mountain is very mom and pop. There are basically two or three trails and a 4X/dirt jump area. It's probably good now - as the season goes on they built the DH trail too steep for the dry/loose dirt and it just gets beyond blown out. But the 4X course is pretty fun. Unfortunately it's a long ass drive to get there and it's a one person to a chair kind of lift and you have to hold your bike on the chair with you. And they're only open on weekends this year. I'm not sure I'll make a trip there this year. I wish they'd just open a little lift servicing the terrain park...

Sundance (unless they've been adding stuff) technically has one real DH course. They have more than one trail, but the DH course was the only one I really dug. Having said that, it's a damn fun course. I'm a snob when it comes to lift service riding, and prefer to keep pedaling to a minimum, unlike AG who loves the Super D type of riding. Definitely a preference thing, cause it's some really nice, twisty singletrack.

Wolf is small and the runs are short, but it's a hoot. I haven't been since last summer, but the DH runs had some fun features and the jump park was plenty entertaining. In response to AGs comment about the trails getting blow out, that's the truth. However, I kinda like riding sketchy, steep stuff, and once it got down to the roots, it stayed at a pretty consistent level of shitty.

DV is good to get some DH runs in, but it's lack of features gets me bored pretty quickly. The exception to this is the NORBA course, but it's such a hassle to get to.

If it were me, I'd hit Wolf.

Not to regurgitate what's already been said...

But I like Sundance for certain reasons, and Deer Valley for certain other reasons.
I LOVE the Boneyard at Sundance, and did several runs of that one on Sunday
I love the Freeride part at DV as well as the challenge of Fireswamp and Thieves Forest.

Sundance and DV are pretty close to each other and you could do both in a weekend.

I've only ridden Sundance a couple times but it's a blast. Bags and AG covered it pretty well already. My pref would be Sundance - more trails, way better scenery and amenitites, and actual legit fun singletrack. Plus it's amazing cornering practice - just turn after turn after turn, but all fast and flowy.

Wolf is fun too, but it's more like skidding-hold-on-for-dear-life fun.

Thanks all.

I think the plan is get into SLC late Tues night. Ride either DV or Sundance Wed, and maybe the other Thur or go straight to Moab. Probably camp out that rode past the pond like last time. If anyone is interested, join us for some fun. I think we have some friends coming from SLC to Moab Fri evening too.

It's all subject to change though.

Another vote for Sundance - just a super fun place in general. lifts run until 6 - so that helps make up for long lift rides, and even if you take a longish lunch break, you can still put a solid day in.

i posted this in other thread - but even though DV's website still says it's going to open this weekend, that may be subject to change - still a ton of snow up top, and lower trails may be limited.

DV will be open, but you are probably better off riding at sundance with all the snow still in the upper elevation mountains.

on June 2nd someone posted a pic of the gate for the guardsman pass road which goes from Big Cottonwood up and over and drops into DV..... i think it's gonna need some more time....
http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/UM...pic.php?t=4516

that's about 8900 ft where the snow at the gate is and about 8100 ft at the bottom of the silver lake lift at DV (which is like the mid mountain lift where you would probably want to ride?) We had another 8 inches of snow in the mountains this past thursday or so.

edit: here is some more local recon from the mid mountain trail which is at 8,000 ft give or take and runs from the Canyons to DV.... more snow....
http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/UM...pic.php?t=4530

Holy crap, Re.

I'm super stoked to finally ride The Crest...in September.

Originally Posted by bagtagley

Holy crap, Re.

I'm super stoked to finally ride The Crest...in September.

Totally. Re and I were just talking about this yesterday. It's a bummer it probably won't be ready for a while, but what a great excuse to ride new places!

I talked with the DV bike folks (doing something w/ them for work) and they said it's highly unlikely that riding will be ready to go by Friday, too much wet/snow still-just like previous folks have said.

Originally Posted by altachic

Totally. Re and I were just talking about this yesterday. It's a bummer it probably won't be ready for a while, but what a great excuse to ride new places!

I talked with the DV bike folks (doing something w/ them for work) and they said it's highly unlikely that riding will be ready to go by Friday, too much wet/snow still-just like previous folks have said.

tell graff he needs to get up there with a hairdryer to make it happen!

Here's the webcam page from DV...

Deer Valley Webcams and weather

Note the long stripes of snow currently

I am heading to Park City tonight for the Re:Session Premiere and was thinking of riding The Canyons tomorrow. It sounds like it is more XC than DH. Is this correct? Should I bring my DH or XC bike?