tirolerpeter
New member
Solitude, Big Cottonwood Canyon
Wed 11/29
Conditions: About another 6" to 8" overnight on top of Monday's 20." Woke up to a few inches on the ground down in the valley (Sandy..about 10 mi south of SLC). Local TV was complaining about the 4 degrees cold. Decided on a "Grand Slam" at Denny's to "fuel up." Hit the mountain about 10 AM. Had to park all the way back in the 2nd row of the parking lot, nearly 100' from the door to the lodge. Today's powder was even lighter than the previous stuff. Solitude had groomed a number of runs so we took those to warm up the muscles. It definitely helped. Started working some of the ungroomed and edging in and out of some of the tree areas. Took my first "head over heels" of the trip after burying an edge of an uphill ski. No harm done except for snow in my goggles and down my neck. Even though temps were around zero early on, the absolutely BLUE sky, and the effort of working the powder runs had us sweating in no time. Solitude defines BLACK diamonds when it comes to pitch. Of course, when the snow is over your knees, and you really can't find the bottom at times, steep is a blessing. Locals keep bitching about "limited coverage." That means that the tops of some bushes are still peeking out of the snow in spots on the defined trails. Of course, that really doesn't mean much since very few people actually ski the trails. We ran out of steam a little after two and since my son and I are leaving tomorrow, and since conditions at Snowbasin don't really warrant a ski day there, I took him for a ride just to see the base lodge. He finally actually believes what I told him they were like. Those of you who have been there know what I mean. Since James is a snowboarder, we won't get to Alta this trip. So tomorrow we will toss a coin to choose between a return to "the Bird" as locals refer to it, or to go to Brighton since he has never been out to UT before.
Wed 11/29
Conditions: About another 6" to 8" overnight on top of Monday's 20." Woke up to a few inches on the ground down in the valley (Sandy..about 10 mi south of SLC). Local TV was complaining about the 4 degrees cold. Decided on a "Grand Slam" at Denny's to "fuel up." Hit the mountain about 10 AM. Had to park all the way back in the 2nd row of the parking lot, nearly 100' from the door to the lodge. Today's powder was even lighter than the previous stuff. Solitude had groomed a number of runs so we took those to warm up the muscles. It definitely helped. Started working some of the ungroomed and edging in and out of some of the tree areas. Took my first "head over heels" of the trip after burying an edge of an uphill ski. No harm done except for snow in my goggles and down my neck. Even though temps were around zero early on, the absolutely BLUE sky, and the effort of working the powder runs had us sweating in no time. Solitude defines BLACK diamonds when it comes to pitch. Of course, when the snow is over your knees, and you really can't find the bottom at times, steep is a blessing. Locals keep bitching about "limited coverage." That means that the tops of some bushes are still peeking out of the snow in spots on the defined trails. Of course, that really doesn't mean much since very few people actually ski the trails. We ran out of steam a little after two and since my son and I are leaving tomorrow, and since conditions at Snowbasin don't really warrant a ski day there, I took him for a ride just to see the base lodge. He finally actually believes what I told him they were like. Those of you who have been there know what I mean. Since James is a snowboarder, we won't get to Alta this trip. So tomorrow we will toss a coin to choose between a return to "the Bird" as locals refer to it, or to go to Brighton since he has never been out to UT before.
