abc
Well-known member
TWO fabulous powder days ("powder daze") at The Canyons (Park City)!!!
After my short break from my tour, my original plan was to head over to Jackson and burn my 2 free MCP days. But the atmospheric cloud had a different plan.
Whilst Jackson had quite a lot of powder last week, Utah was on tap for a proper big one THIS week. As I was boarding my plane to go back to Salt Lake, the snow had started to dump on the area.
Bonus Day 1 (2/23).
Mountain: The Canyons at Park City
Condition: Powder!
Weather: cloudy, foggy, snowing!
Last week, I had 2 sub par days at Park City due to unusually warm weather. So I thought it deserves a chance for redemption.
More over, I'm not a big fan of skiing in whiteout condition above treeline, which the best of Snowbird's terrain lies. Besides, the Cottonwood Canyon road was closed during the height of the storm. So Park City was the only game in town.
My friend played hooky from work to show me some easy powder. Mid-calf to almost knee-deep (I probably wouldn't find those stashes on my own. Also very poor visibility just to figure out where I'm at all).
But first, she has to run the morning scrum meeting. So we don't get to do first chair. Still, since it'll be snowing all day long, I wasn't too terribly disturbed about missing first chair.
We start from the Canyons side because parking at Park City was super hard so we didn't want to chance it on a powder day. The Pines besides the Saddleback chair usually have good powder. It didn't disappoint this time either. In fact, it was a little "too much" powder given the whiteout condition. I couldn't see where the snow is. I was being taken for a ride by my own skis.
We decided to move on to Peak 5 and the mellower "dreamland" area. On the way there, there's a black run that few people bother to touch. But my friend the trusted local boarder took me down that one. Wide open trees, snow was up to my knee! Not bad for a 2nd run of the day!
Then we "arrived" at the dreamland area. A powder lovers' dream come true!!!
First, we had to "suffer" through a short section of the upper runs, where moguls were hidden from the newly fallen powder. My skis often found the hard crusty mogul beneath. My friend's board however, floated right over them.
But like the terrain trap in an avalanche, the lower half of the runs had "trapped" all the snow slid down from above, making them thick and cushy. We were lapping it up like kittens with a bowl of milk. (had I bothered to stop and took pictures of ourselves, you would have only see the huge ear-to-ear grin and nothing else)
We boarded the Dream Catcher chair as the liftie were flipping the chairs cushion up right after us! For not starting the day on first chair, we made it a full day by riding the last chair.
My friend thought Sidewinder might for once be rideable given all the snow. But wrong. It was still a slick piece of ice at the end of the day. Based on that sample, we concluded the lower part of the mountain would be in similar condition. We opted to download via the gondola. Our legs breath a sigh of relieve. My legs in particular.
After my short break from my tour, my original plan was to head over to Jackson and burn my 2 free MCP days. But the atmospheric cloud had a different plan.
Whilst Jackson had quite a lot of powder last week, Utah was on tap for a proper big one THIS week. As I was boarding my plane to go back to Salt Lake, the snow had started to dump on the area.
Bonus Day 1 (2/23).
Mountain: The Canyons at Park City
Condition: Powder!
Weather: cloudy, foggy, snowing!
Last week, I had 2 sub par days at Park City due to unusually warm weather. So I thought it deserves a chance for redemption.
More over, I'm not a big fan of skiing in whiteout condition above treeline, which the best of Snowbird's terrain lies. Besides, the Cottonwood Canyon road was closed during the height of the storm. So Park City was the only game in town.
My friend played hooky from work to show me some easy powder. Mid-calf to almost knee-deep (I probably wouldn't find those stashes on my own. Also very poor visibility just to figure out where I'm at all).
But first, she has to run the morning scrum meeting. So we don't get to do first chair. Still, since it'll be snowing all day long, I wasn't too terribly disturbed about missing first chair.
We start from the Canyons side because parking at Park City was super hard so we didn't want to chance it on a powder day. The Pines besides the Saddleback chair usually have good powder. It didn't disappoint this time either. In fact, it was a little "too much" powder given the whiteout condition. I couldn't see where the snow is. I was being taken for a ride by my own skis.
We decided to move on to Peak 5 and the mellower "dreamland" area. On the way there, there's a black run that few people bother to touch. But my friend the trusted local boarder took me down that one. Wide open trees, snow was up to my knee! Not bad for a 2nd run of the day!
Then we "arrived" at the dreamland area. A powder lovers' dream come true!!!
First, we had to "suffer" through a short section of the upper runs, where moguls were hidden from the newly fallen powder. My skis often found the hard crusty mogul beneath. My friend's board however, floated right over them.
But like the terrain trap in an avalanche, the lower half of the runs had "trapped" all the snow slid down from above, making them thick and cushy. We were lapping it up like kittens with a bowl of milk. (had I bothered to stop and took pictures of ourselves, you would have only see the huge ear-to-ear grin and nothing else)
We boarded the Dream Catcher chair as the liftie were flipping the chairs cushion up right after us! For not starting the day on first chair, we made it a full day by riding the last chair.
My friend thought Sidewinder might for once be rideable given all the snow. But wrong. It was still a slick piece of ice at the end of the day. Based on that sample, we concluded the lower part of the mountain would be in similar condition. We opted to download via the gondola. Our legs breath a sigh of relieve. My legs in particular.
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