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Utah 2/4 - 2/8

Puck it

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
9,706
Points
48
Location
Franconia, NH
Typing this on plane from the iTouch. Free WiFi.

Day one

Arrived a little late. Buddy had been waiting about 45 minutes. We hoped in the rental at 11AM. We drove out to Deer Valley to make use of the free pass. We were on the slopes by 12:15. We hit a couple of blues for a warm up and then had over to Mayflower Bowl. The signs said thin cover. Had to laugh. We skied the area far right in the bowl. Pretty steep.
There are a lot of lifts there and HSQ. Lifts servicing only houses. Conditions were good. Groomers were scratchy. Trees were relatively untouched everywhere. Almost ended on the trip on the last run. Hit a submerged tree and lost a ski. Couldn't stop befor coming to two trees and decide to go between. Tip caught one tree and ejected out other ski. Slammed shin into trunk and forked other ankle. Could have been bad.

Day 2

At the Bird, love it there. Hit gadzoom and mid gad areas as warm up. We then skied off of the Little Cloud. Had some nice runs there in the bowl. Then went over to Mineral Basin. We hit the Chamonix chutes and took somes runs over near the Bookends. Never got over to the Cirques. Buddie's legs were tired. We took a few more run in the Mid Gad area in the chutes around there. Hit this one that was about 50 degrees. Snow was good. They had a couple inches over night.

Gad 2
Snowbird.jpg


Chute at Snowbird
Snowbird_Chute.jpg

Day 3

Took the advicenofnthe shop guy and skied Solitude. They had about 4 overnight. No lines anywhere and a lot of untracked areas. First time to Solitude and I was pleasantly surprised. We mainly skied of the Summit and Powdrhorn II chairs. The steeps off PH II into the Summit Chair were awesome. The gem was Honeycomb. Everytime in was first track. We even hit a section near the top of Voltaire that was thigh deep. We headed over again and found a German tourist hanging from tree by his hand. He had gotten thrown on the traverse and lost his skis. We stopped to help. He was alone and should not have been there. He was not a good skier. We wanted a pic of him hanging there but we thought better. He was scared. We skied Navarone area a number of times. also. It was the best day. I will definitely ski there again.

Entrance to Honey Comb
Honeycomb_Canyon_1.jpg


Parachute
Solitude_Parachute.jpg


Moose at Solitude
Moose_at_Solitude_1.jpg


Middle Slope

Solitude_Middle_Slope.jpg




Black Forest

Solitude_Black_Forest.jpg

Day 4

Alta. They were expecting 2-4 but got none. My buddy's legs were toast and I was having trouble sleeping. I think it was the Camel back tabs with caffeine. It was causing my heart to race. It was weird and scary. Better today and hopefully will sleep. We stuck to groomers for the most part since his legs were not responding and I was getting winded easy. I did do a few chutes off the groomers so I could stay with him. We finished at about 1PM so we could watch the game at Iggy's.

Good trip. I PO'ed a couple of guys at the hotel saying that I did not like Alta. I thought the Bird was better. They were from Philly and ski Alta everyday they come out. They did not say anything the next day to us in the hot tub. My opinion. My buddy will send me the few pics that we took in a couple of days. Excuse the typos and mis-spellings.

Schuss Gully
Alta_Chute_1.png
 
Last edited:

Angus

Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2005
Messages
961
Points
16
Just read the report. Was at Solitude last Monday and skied Middle Slope first run of day trying to get over to Wilderness lift. What a disaster. The previous day had been warm and sunny and all the fluff had frozen up - yikes. Milk Run was better later in the day with fresh snow.

Did you ski Navarone or skiers ride-side of Honeycomb Return lift (off the backside eagle ridge trail) - steep and tight woods?

enjoyed Solitude quite a bit too.
 
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