The Canyons 3/3 + 3/4

[drjeff]

Resort The Canyons

Dates 3/3 + 3/4

Conditions Bluebird 3/3, Cold, windy, some fresh 3/4

Report

Two more great days at The Canyons. Monday the 3rd was classic Utah bluebird. Nice temps in the upper 20's/low 30's, light wind, light crowds and still plenty of fresh, soft snow from Sunday's 10 to 12" of snow across the 3700 odd acres that comprises The Canyons. I took it a bit easy in the AM as my legs were a bit spent from the previous day, and did some decent cruising around as my wife was stopping about every 100 yards and gawking at the mega-million dollar mansions that line many of the runs in the portion of the resort between the base of 9990, the base of Dreamscape/Dreamcatcher and the base of Tombstone. I did find enough leg strength though to take a few pow runs through the trees of Dreamcatcher/Dreamscape and Daybreak though

After a leasurely lunch the legs felt a bit revived and my wife and I spent the afternoon in the Supercondor and Golden Eagle areas of The Canyons. Lots of chopped powder/trees, and even a fair amount of untouched boot-top powder in the northfacing trees of these areas. The "suprise" of the day though was seeing a couple of Moose in the Golden Eagle area. Apparently a family, a bull, a doe and a calf have taken up residence this winter in the trees on a south facing slope in the Golden Eagle area, and the calf and mama moose were prominently on display in the afternoon. Neat thing to see(from a distance)

Tuesday 3/4: A front blew in over night bringing maybe an inch at the base and 2 to maybe 3" up at the summits. Temps were in the low 20's and the wind was gusting in the 30 to 40mph range throughout the day, creating white out conditions from time to time along the ridgelines and summits. Not very crowded at all today, so up through lunchtime you could find an untracked couple of inches of snow on top of everything from a machine groomed to a soft packed base. I have to give props to my wife, who while not afraid of the steep and deep(ish) stuff, does favor the more controlled groomed steeper terrain. Well, she told me that she wanted to ski 9990 today on our last day at The Canyons this year so that she'd have skied all the peaks here. Well, yesterdays warmish temps created a little crust here and there on the South facing slopes, and off 9990 the "easiest" way down is off the South side. Knowing this, it was off the Northside for her. I took her down through the Redpine Chutes and they were a mix of soft bumps with a blown in few inches of snow to some STEEP trees and finally some nice steepish open bowl skiing befoe the run out at the base. Well, my wife made it down and I'm happy to report is still talking to me

The only run I wish I didn't take today was "aftershock" (formerly known as Southside Chute #1) off the SuperCondor lift. That southerly exposure and warm temps of the previous day I mentioned above really put a crusty surface on that run, and basically it turned into 750 odd vertically feet of steep jump turns through breakable crust. Not exactly fun, and considering this was run #23 on the day for me, well the jello legs made a quick return by the bottom of the run As a result, I didn't complain too much when my 4 year old daughter wanted to download on The Flight of The Canyons Gondola at the end of the day instead of skiing to the base.

Off to Deervalley for the next 3 days. And with the Jetstream basically overhead right now, forcasters are calling for a decent chance of a few inches of snow overnight

 

[kingslug]

Our favorite when we are in the area. Huge place to explore and gape at the 20,000 sq.ft. mega mansions. I though one was a lodge!

 

[RISkier]

How did you like The Canyons in comparison to Deer Valley. When we were there, we actually liked The Canyons better. I was surprised. I need to go back to DV and give it another chance.

 

[drjeff]

How did you like The Canyons in comparison to Deer Valley. When we were there, we actually liked The Canyons better. I was surprised. I need to go back to DV and give it another chance.

Depends on what you're looking for. I have close to 15 days now at both The Canyons and Deer Valley over the last almost 10 years. I really like each place. My wife and I now will typically ski at the Canyons early in our week out in Utah and at Deer Valley late in the week (now that we're bringing our young kids with us, our kidless days of skiing at 6 different Utah resorts in 6 days are done for a few years - atleast until the kids get out of daycare/early ski school).

I love the HUGE amount of trees and steeps at The Canyons. There's so much acreage of really good terrain that it's real easy to find untracked snow on great terrain for days after a storm. On the flipside a decent portion of this great terrain has a Southerly exposure and is susceptable to getting some "crust" if the sun comes out Also, getting up on the hill in the AM (for now atleast) can be a pain with the lines that build for The Flight of The Canyons Gondola. Apparently, one of the 1st things that the new MGT there (Talisker) will be taking care of is putting in a 2nd base area Gondola from out back of the Westgate/ Sundial Lodge properties(the buildings to the left of you as your getting off the Cabriolet in the AM) upto the base of the Tombstone 6 pack - this will not only help things in the AM, but will allow you not to have to traverse back and forth in the AM to get out to Dreamscape/Dreamcatcher areas and then get back to Redpine late day to head back to the base area.

Deer Valley - The more and more I ski there, the more I find new things that I like about it(ontop of the already big lists of likes I have for it) The way they cut the trails there, especially on Bald Mtn, and how they groom them to perfection make for just about as good a high speed GS experience you can get. Plus, there steeps and trees are WAY underrated and uncrowded and hold fresh snow for days after a storm. Another thing that goes without saying is that when you take a break and get a bite to eat, the food is OUTSTANDING! The lift system at Deer Vally DEFINATELY beats The Canyons current lift system. Deer Valley on the flipside, can get crowded(especially on Bald and Flagstaff Mtns)and in someplaces on the mountain you almost feel like you're skiing through a valley of townhomes rather than out in nature.

If you forced me to choose between the 2, it would be a tough choice, but I'd probably pick Deer Valley