Resort: Sundance Resort, Utah
Date: January11, 2014
Conditions/Weather: P/PP, partly sunny skies and some wind. Mild—30’s.
2014 Trip No: 11
Trip Report:
Earlier this year, our local Costco had the usual run ofdiscount ski tickets—Park City and Canyons—but there were newcomers to thestore—Snowbird and Sundance. TheSundance tickets caught my attention because in July we drove through AmericanFork Canyon and stopped at Sundance. The area, small by west coast standards, has a very unusual base area that is “blended in” with the landscape and offers up 450 acres of ski terrain and 2,150vertical feet. By east coast standards that is a good sized area (the same vertical as Jay). And, with non-blackout tickets at $44 apiece, I could not resist.
My wife and I skied there on December 26[SUP]th[/SUP]. Snow was scant, and it was my wife’s firstski outing in a year because of her torn ACL. So the day was cut short…and I was disappointed having only sampled a few of the runs. So I went to Costco and snagged two more tickets. When a friend, interviewing for residency, came by, and said that he wanted to ride a resortthat offered a taste of the west but was not too crazy, I suggested Sundance.
“Sundance? Like thefilm festival?”
“Yep. It’s Robert Redford’sresort. And it’s legit.”
He looked at the trail map and was impressed by thevariety. I also told him that the placewas the “non-resort” and not crowded. He was sold.
We drove down I-15 to Provo Canyon and headed up to themountain. Since I had already been there I knew the drill—park above and ride the bus down. No problem. I was not expecting the lines at the ticket office though so while my friend got his rental sorted I rode the bus back up to go to that ticket window. Nearly everyone had the Costco vouchers and many told me that they would not have been there otherwise. I grabbed my tickets, thanked the agent for selling them at Costco, and headed down to meet my friend.
Sundance is essentially two mountain peaks stacked on top of each other. The lower mountain has two lifts that act as shuttles and have mid load and unloads. This explains why the main quad, Ray’s Lift, starts and stops so often—you can disembark that lift at three different placesand use it for downloading. The upper mountain has two triples serving exclusively black and blue terrain with Bishop’s Bowl as the focal point for the “bowl” and western skiing.
Here’s the trail map: http://sundanceresort.com/explore/pdf/winter trail map_PR_14.pdf
The Upper Mountain as viewed from the top of Ray’s:
We did a warm-up down Navajo Cattrack to Maverick and hitJake’s Lift (a new quad) before heading down Lone Pine to the backside and theold school Flathead Triple Chair.
Maverick:
Lone Pine:
Flathead Triple:
Bishop’s Bowl from Flathead:
To ease the transition, we headed down Cassidy’s Traverseand down Bear Claw, the wide intermediate trail off the summit (I will admit toscoping out some trees though).
Next stop was the Bishop’s Bowl. I was salivating to jump in there and it didnot disappoint:
That is yours truly:
Steve tries his first west coast bowl:
On our first spin, we skied the Bishop’s Cat Track out andthen down Badlands back to the Arrowhead Triple. We found ourselves at the top of Bishop’s:
Before skiing down Lower Grizzly Bowl to Flathead.
Date: January11, 2014
Conditions/Weather: P/PP, partly sunny skies and some wind. Mild—30’s.
2014 Trip No: 11
Trip Report:
Earlier this year, our local Costco had the usual run ofdiscount ski tickets—Park City and Canyons—but there were newcomers to thestore—Snowbird and Sundance. TheSundance tickets caught my attention because in July we drove through AmericanFork Canyon and stopped at Sundance. The area, small by west coast standards, has a very unusual base area that is “blended in” with the landscape and offers up 450 acres of ski terrain and 2,150vertical feet. By east coast standards that is a good sized area (the same vertical as Jay). And, with non-blackout tickets at $44 apiece, I could not resist.
My wife and I skied there on December 26[SUP]th[/SUP]. Snow was scant, and it was my wife’s firstski outing in a year because of her torn ACL. So the day was cut short…and I was disappointed having only sampled a few of the runs. So I went to Costco and snagged two more tickets. When a friend, interviewing for residency, came by, and said that he wanted to ride a resortthat offered a taste of the west but was not too crazy, I suggested Sundance.
“Sundance? Like thefilm festival?”
“Yep. It’s Robert Redford’sresort. And it’s legit.”
He looked at the trail map and was impressed by thevariety. I also told him that the placewas the “non-resort” and not crowded. He was sold.
We drove down I-15 to Provo Canyon and headed up to themountain. Since I had already been there I knew the drill—park above and ride the bus down. No problem. I was not expecting the lines at the ticket office though so while my friend got his rental sorted I rode the bus back up to go to that ticket window. Nearly everyone had the Costco vouchers and many told me that they would not have been there otherwise. I grabbed my tickets, thanked the agent for selling them at Costco, and headed down to meet my friend.
Sundance is essentially two mountain peaks stacked on top of each other. The lower mountain has two lifts that act as shuttles and have mid load and unloads. This explains why the main quad, Ray’s Lift, starts and stops so often—you can disembark that lift at three different placesand use it for downloading. The upper mountain has two triples serving exclusively black and blue terrain with Bishop’s Bowl as the focal point for the “bowl” and western skiing.
Here’s the trail map: http://sundanceresort.com/explore/pdf/winter trail map_PR_14.pdf
The Upper Mountain as viewed from the top of Ray’s:
We did a warm-up down Navajo Cattrack to Maverick and hitJake’s Lift (a new quad) before heading down Lone Pine to the backside and theold school Flathead Triple Chair.
Maverick:
Lone Pine:
Flathead Triple:
Bishop’s Bowl from Flathead:
To ease the transition, we headed down Cassidy’s Traverseand down Bear Claw, the wide intermediate trail off the summit (I will admit toscoping out some trees though).
Next stop was the Bishop’s Bowl. I was salivating to jump in there and it didnot disappoint:
That is yours truly:
Steve tries his first west coast bowl:
On our first spin, we skied the Bishop’s Cat Track out andthen down Badlands back to the Arrowhead Triple. We found ourselves at the top of Bishop’s:
Before skiing down Lower Grizzly Bowl to Flathead.
