Resorts: Alta and Snowbird
Date: March 15, 2015
Conditions: Variable. Sunny with temps on the high 20's rising into the 40's.
Report: It's been three weeks since my last visit to Alta/Snowbird. Between my trip to Vermont and a trip to Deer Valley last weekend, my return was long overdue. The original plan was to bring my wife and daughter and have a nice spring ski day with friends at Alta. But one of our friends skied on Saturday and was pretty disappointed with the conditions so she bailed. That spooked my wife, who called an audible this morning, and decided to stay home.
It has to be really bad for me not to go. So I headed up. Since I had a bit of a later start, I went for Alta (9:15 opening) with the option of crossing over to Snowbird.
Collins was not too busy this morning. I could see that this side had set up and would not be too good. So I headed to Sugarloaf, which was just getting the sun. The first run was down a groomed Extrovert, which was firm but edgeable. It skied nicely. So I repeated and did groomed Cecret Saddle, which was perfect. Next run was Devil's Elbow before another spin down Extrovert. All very nice, but the crowds were beginning to come over and I knew it was going to get skied off and bumpy. So I followed the sun and headed across to Snowbird.
Baldy served up some nice soft snow on Bird's Nest. Mineral Basin Express already had a line, but I was able to get through in about five minutes. I headed down Powder Paradise intent on going to the Bookends, but White Diamonds got my eye and I headed down it. It was not quite corn but pretty nice. Lower Powder Paradise was getting chewed up fast. I headed back up and decided to try Regulator Johnson, which looked nice but was death cookies and frozen granular.
At Little Cloud Lift I noticed that the lifty was from St. Johnsbury, Vermont. I told him that I was from the Kingdom as well. Seeing that he was there, I decided to do Mark Malu, which was pretty nice, just to return down and introduce myself.
After chit-chatting, I returned to the summit and headed over to the Bookends. One MAJOR improvement was that they widened the Bookends Traverse so that it sees a snowcat and they took out the Hillary Step. The last time I had skied the Bookends the Hillary Step was just too nasty for my liking. The upside was that the tricky traverse kept traffic down. Now the new traverse is essentially like I-15 with much more traffic. But it is a tradeoff and one I would make for a low snow year.
I chose a nice line down the Endoras....most of which was nice...but the chute was pretty tricky because of some odd bumps and no real good lines.
After a spin down Lucky Boy, I headed back to Alta and down the Racecourse, which was frozen and crusty. I managed to find a decent line down to groomers and to the Meadow and back to Collins base.
So the skiing is not bad, but we need more snow. Pics soon.
Date: March 15, 2015
Conditions: Variable. Sunny with temps on the high 20's rising into the 40's.
Report: It's been three weeks since my last visit to Alta/Snowbird. Between my trip to Vermont and a trip to Deer Valley last weekend, my return was long overdue. The original plan was to bring my wife and daughter and have a nice spring ski day with friends at Alta. But one of our friends skied on Saturday and was pretty disappointed with the conditions so she bailed. That spooked my wife, who called an audible this morning, and decided to stay home.
It has to be really bad for me not to go. So I headed up. Since I had a bit of a later start, I went for Alta (9:15 opening) with the option of crossing over to Snowbird.
Collins was not too busy this morning. I could see that this side had set up and would not be too good. So I headed to Sugarloaf, which was just getting the sun. The first run was down a groomed Extrovert, which was firm but edgeable. It skied nicely. So I repeated and did groomed Cecret Saddle, which was perfect. Next run was Devil's Elbow before another spin down Extrovert. All very nice, but the crowds were beginning to come over and I knew it was going to get skied off and bumpy. So I followed the sun and headed across to Snowbird.
Baldy served up some nice soft snow on Bird's Nest. Mineral Basin Express already had a line, but I was able to get through in about five minutes. I headed down Powder Paradise intent on going to the Bookends, but White Diamonds got my eye and I headed down it. It was not quite corn but pretty nice. Lower Powder Paradise was getting chewed up fast. I headed back up and decided to try Regulator Johnson, which looked nice but was death cookies and frozen granular.
At Little Cloud Lift I noticed that the lifty was from St. Johnsbury, Vermont. I told him that I was from the Kingdom as well. Seeing that he was there, I decided to do Mark Malu, which was pretty nice, just to return down and introduce myself.
After chit-chatting, I returned to the summit and headed over to the Bookends. One MAJOR improvement was that they widened the Bookends Traverse so that it sees a snowcat and they took out the Hillary Step. The last time I had skied the Bookends the Hillary Step was just too nasty for my liking. The upside was that the tricky traverse kept traffic down. Now the new traverse is essentially like I-15 with much more traffic. But it is a tradeoff and one I would make for a low snow year.
I chose a nice line down the Endoras....most of which was nice...but the chute was pretty tricky because of some odd bumps and no real good lines.
After a spin down Lucky Boy, I headed back to Alta and down the Racecourse, which was frozen and crusty. I managed to find a decent line down to groomers and to the Meadow and back to Collins base.
So the skiing is not bad, but we need more snow. Pics soon.
