Thread: TR: Ski bumming trip wk 2 - SLC area

Hi all,

After about 8 days of nothing but sunshine in Jackson and Big Sky, it was time to move South to Utah. I arrived in lovely Ogden on Wed. the 22nd to do Snowbasin the next day.

I really enjoyed Snowbasin, although it was rock hard that day. I estimated my vertical at 40K that day. The 3 high speed lifts all give around 2500 vert and with about 100 cars in the parking lot, you can cover a lot of ground without seeing another human. I did 2 serious couloirs by hiking 10 minutes on both sides of the Strawberry gondola. The million-dollar lodges on the mountain seem completely out of place with this mountain. I don't see how Snowbasin can make money with so little skier traffic and no lodging.

Friday 23rd - Alta: Hooked up with a local fellow homebrewer. It was funny to hear him bitch about how bad the conditions were. I thought it was OK, although very hard. A fall in High Rustler and you would probably end up in the parking lot...

Sat 24th - Snowbird: I was enroled in their avie training class. A GREAT deal at 49$. It included lift ticket, a pre-opening tram ride at 8:30, lunch and a 1 in 20 chance of winning a heli-skiing day (I didn't ) One class was dedicated to snow pack and route finding and one to beacon practice. I was really impressed with how well my DTS Tracker worked, especially in multiple burials. This thing is so much easier to use than the old Pieps analog I once practiced with. I managed to get a couple of hours of skiing in and conditions were good, but very hard. I was now really hurting for powder...

The mrs and my posse was flying in that night in SLC for a week of skiing. We had a house in Sandy from Luxury Ski accomodation. Not really "luxury", but still very nice and highly recommended. And, my gang brought some snow with them. FINALLY!!!!!

Sun 25th - Solitude. 8" of fresh, another 8-10" fell during the day. About 50 cars in the parking lot, this place is really well named. Fantastic first tracks conditions all day. I wasn't really impressed with the terrain however, I found it hard to find anything with more than 1000' of constant vertical in one run. Maybe I need a local. This place must have fresh show days after Alta/Snowbird

Mon 26th - Snowbird. Another 8" of fresh. Felt really crowded after Solitude. This place tracks fast!!! It was quite fascinating to watch, reminded me of playing catch with the patrol in Whistler. I managed to get first tracks in Mineral Basin and on the Road to Provo bowls. An excellent day.

Tue 27th - Snowbasin. Took a chance that Snowbasin was always as empty as I saw it the previous week and boy did we score. This was truly an amazing day, untracked everywhere and again 100 cars in the parking lot. I have neved skiied so much untracked snow in one day, the run off No Name peak was probably better than any snowcat I've ever done, I would guess 1800' vertical of perfectly pitched 30-35 degree untracked. Definitely a Top-5 lifetime day with a lift ticket, probably only topped by epic dumps I've had in La Grave and Val D'Isere. My posse were all ready to move to Utah

Wed 28th - Alta. Another great day, 4-6" of fresh on top of super soft stuff. Everyone really enjoyed the vibe of Alta. My only gripe is all the closures with the patrol obviously making no effort to open the terrain.

Thu 29th - Snowbasin. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Snowbasin's reputation for crappy weather was well deserved on that day. Freezing rain turned all that great powder into Sierra Cement. There was still shitloads of untracked snow, what a waste! Visibility was about the tip of your skis which really scared some of the less experienced members of my gang.

Fri 30th - Snowbird. No new snow, but great skiing nonetheless. Very soft, easy turning, great steeps. I'm really having a hard time deciding between Jackson or the Bird as my favorite mountain (for terrain) in the US.

Sat 31st - Time for my gang and the mrs to go home. 1st day off after 9 consecutive days of skiing. Everybody was amazed by the fabulous skiing in Utah. I have now skied 16 out of 17 days since this whole thing started in Jackson. My old body is holding up pretty well

Will be going to Aspen (Feb 2-3), Crested Butte (4) and Telluride (5 or 6th) tomorrow. If anyone in these areas would like to ski with me, it would be great. Just let me know through this board.

Ski on,

Steve

Scul-
ColdSmoke and I had a great time with you at dinner tonight. I'm happy to say that Rodizio's is back with their A-game.
Have a safe drive to Aspen tomorrow, and the other Coloraddy addresses you'll be visiting. That's a lotta ski areas you're knocking-off on this two month trip. http://www.tetongravity.com/ubb/icons/icon14.gif
Try to take a few pics, would ya? The trip reports you're posting are great but a photo or two at each place would be keeno.

________________________________
"Microbrewed to micro-perfection."

Originally posted by sculhane

Sun 25th - Solitude. 8" of fresh, another 8-10" fell during the day. About 50 cars in the parking lot, this place is really well named. Fantastic first tracks conditions all day. I wasn't really impressed with the terrain however, I found it hard to find anything with more than 1000' of constant vertical in one run. Maybe I need a local. This place must have fresh show days after Alta/Snowbird.

Ummm, do you read this board?

BobMc

Originally posted by sculhane
Wed 28th - Alta. Another great day, 4-6" of fresh on top of super soft stuff. Everyone really enjoyed the vibe of Alta. My only gripe is all the closures with the patrol obviously making no effort to open the terrain.

Patrol makes quite an effort to open terrain as fast as possible. Maybe you didn't notice that just about everything at Alta poses some avalanche danger, and thus it takes a lot of bombing to open the mountain.

Overall, nice report. This past week has been pretty good in Utah, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Z- I've talked with Scul extensively about this. He's skied areas all around the world with comparable, or even greater, avy danger. HIs observations about not opening terrain refer more to the powder preservation, the litigiousness of the U.S., and sometimes simply the laziness he's witnessed here in LCC. You've seen it--all of us locals have experienced it at one time or another, it's just that he caught on to it a lot quicker than most visitors.

Originally posted by BobMc
Ummm, do you read this board?

I think he's too busy skiing...

Well, I think it's hard to argue with Alta and Snowbird's inbounds avy fatality record. Maybe it's a money issue sometimes - staffing and explosives aren't free. They could spend more money and get things open faster, I guess.

Originally posted by Endlessseason
Z- I've talked with Scul extensively about this. He's skied areas all around the world with comparable, or even greater, avy danger. HIs observations about not opening terrain refer more to the powder preservation, the litigiousness of the U.S., and sometimes simply the laziness he's witnessed here in LCC. You've seen it--all of us locals have experienced it at one time or another, it's just that he caught on to it a lot quicker than most visitors.

I love Alta just as much as everyone else, but Saturday (which was sicksicksick BTW) Devil's Castle opens for the first time in a week. Was there any reason they couldn't do their bombing on Friday morning (when there was no new snow) and open it Friday afternoon? Maybe. But, it seemed to me like they were saving it for the weekend. I can understand why this is, but completely see where Scul is coming from.

PS: I'll be working during most of the super bowl, but will try and get over to GMD to catch the end...

EndlessRon,

Thanks for coming to my defence I sure don't wan't to upset anyone with my comments about terrain opening at Alta. The reason for my comments was that the local I skied with asked about Devil's Castle opening to a patrolman and was answered: "We won't work on it today because it might snow tomorrow". Considering that there hadn't been any significant snowfall for 3 days and there wasn't any significant snow predicted, I didn't think this was an acceptable answer as a paying customer.

Endless hit it right on the head when he mentions the fact that the US is a litigation-based society where the corporation is responsible for the actions of the individual. Nowhere is this more evident than in the past threads about Silverton. Although I wish them nothing but success, I just don't think it can work in the US like La Grave in France.

I was in Val D'Isere in 2002 and saw an avalanche that killed 6 people in Le Tour Charvet (they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, it was nobody's "fault"). While it was big news on the local radio, there was no talk of lawsuits, ropes around the area and the likes. Life just went on. Had this happened over here, the lawyers would have feasted...

As for pictures, my objective is to get a cell phone in 2004, so the digital camera will have to wait til 2005

Made it to Carbondale in about 5.5 hours from SLC (great weather). Looking forward to Aspen tomorrow and Tuesday. It better be good at 72$

Steve

Originally posted by sculhane
Looking forward to Aspen tomorrow and Tuesday. It better be good at 72$

Sheesh. For that amount of money you could go get yourself an acceptable digi cam at Kmart or Walmart.
Also, I don't know how they sell cell phones in your neck of the woods, but they're almost free here.

Just think--you could go home with 2 months of skiing under your belt, a new digicam, AND a cell phone.


______________________________________
"Abounding in contingencies."

Consider the money it costs to open the Castle. Is it worth it for them to open it every day possible? The forecast called for snow Friday night, so all of their efforts to open it Friday would have resulted in them doing it all over again on Saturday. My guess is that Alta doesn't get enough skier visits to justify trying to open the Castle at every opportunity. They could probably open Main Chute and the rest of Baldy a lot more often as well if they wanted to. But considering how empty the place is all the time, why waste the money? I wouldn't consider it laziness, but rather a solid financial decision.

Originally posted by sculhane


Thu 29th - Snowbasin. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Snowbasin's reputation for crappy weather was well deserved on that day. Freezing rain turned all that great powder into Sierra Cement. There was still shitloads of untracked snow, what a waste! Visibility was about the tip of your skis which really scared some of the less experienced members of my gang.

I wish I had known you were around. GT, meats of evil and myself commented that we would hate to be skiing if we did'nt know the mountain. traverses were super fast and you could get to areas that are normally alot of work. had good turns in protected bowls and in the trees. overall very fun day and fast snow, but i could see how it was a let down after tuesday.

sculhane, nice reports and sounds like a sweet trip man. Although, I do have to agree with Endless, go get a cheap digital and give us some pics too.

Regarding Alta, I'm not sure I'd ever refer to their patrol as lazy, those guys to a hell of a job. As for the Castle, besides money, time is a big factor and if snow is in the forecast, it's very doubtful it'll be opened, as Z pointed out. It just takes a hell of a long time, and work to get it opened, with initial avalauncher work, then breaking the trail/tossing hand charges, plus one last sweep, or even two more sweeps if things are really dicey.