A couple of non-AZ buddies and I went out there for 5 days and tried to visit as many resorts as possible. Resorts Visited:
Alta
Snowbird
Brighton
Solitude
Day one Dec 13 - Alta:
Nice mountain, decent snow coverage but I wasn't quite as impressed as I thought I would be by the resort. Some of the more challenging terrain was not open though. Don't get me wrong, there were dozens of runs and cliffs that would easily kill most mortal skiers, but I just wansn't feeling the love at Alta. I will wait to pass final judgement until I have had a chance to ski the entire hill with a local guiding me.
Here is a picture of me standing at the top of a steep-ish tree. You can see the runout from the Catherine area in the background. Catherine was cool.
Me doing my best Magnum:
Day two Dec 14 - Brighton:
I really liked this place. Yes there are a lot of boarders there but everyone seemed really friendly and cool to us skiers. We spent most of the day playing in the Snake Creek area because the weather was really warm (38 degrees at the bottom). Snake Creek lift allowed us to do some laps higher up without having to ski too much below 9000 feet where the snow was turning mushy and sticky quick. Brighton rocks, the trees in the Snake Creek area are great, snow preservation was superb and the pillows all over the place added an element of fun I have never experienced. I tried to go off of as many as I could as the landing was always soft and fluffy. Small but fun mountain with good snow and a lift system that is well suited for lapping steep trees all day long.
Here is the soft snow and the pillows I was talking about. A couple of days after the snow storm, lines right off of the lift remained barely tracked:
Me standing at the top of a steep little line, the Bros hungry for the powder. As you will see in the video at the bottom, the pretty pow was covering some nasty rocks which threw me and I narrowly missed hugging a tree.
Day three Dec 15 - Snowbird:
Amazing terrain, so many sick lines, got to practice my straighlining and starfishing skills a bit. Worst snow of the bunch due to less tree cover (at least where I was skiing) and more sun. With a big dump, this resort is probably absolute heaven. Solid vertical too. Sorry, no pictures here.
Day four & five Dec 16 & 17 - Solitude:
WOW. I mean really really wow. I love this place. It snowed 2 feet in the two days we were there, but wind had blown the trees and some bowls in another 3 it seemed. Skied a good part of the day in waist deep snow, face shots all day long. This place is empty and even around 3pm after a snow storm i was getting long vertical runs of untracked snow. Amazing. The Bros were sinking on me all day long and not because they don't float. Two days in a row of the best snow I have ever skied. The only negative thing I can say about this resort is that it takes a lot more work to get to the fresh snow and get the steep vertical. This is fine by me, cause it helps snow preservation.
This is how much snow there was:
Last day of the trip, my buddy went back to return his snowboard gear, including his boots. Once the gear was returned we hear "Oh, crap! I don't have my shoes and its snowing outside!" ..... Problem solved:
Here is a little Video of the skiing we had. Sorry, the quality is pretty bad, I suck at video editing and the recording was made with a crappy little digital camera.
http://sports.webshots.com/video/3011779080062927787
Alta
Snowbird
Brighton
Solitude
Day one Dec 13 - Alta:
Nice mountain, decent snow coverage but I wasn't quite as impressed as I thought I would be by the resort. Some of the more challenging terrain was not open though. Don't get me wrong, there were dozens of runs and cliffs that would easily kill most mortal skiers, but I just wansn't feeling the love at Alta. I will wait to pass final judgement until I have had a chance to ski the entire hill with a local guiding me.
Here is a picture of me standing at the top of a steep-ish tree. You can see the runout from the Catherine area in the background. Catherine was cool.
Me doing my best Magnum:
Day two Dec 14 - Brighton:
I really liked this place. Yes there are a lot of boarders there but everyone seemed really friendly and cool to us skiers. We spent most of the day playing in the Snake Creek area because the weather was really warm (38 degrees at the bottom). Snake Creek lift allowed us to do some laps higher up without having to ski too much below 9000 feet where the snow was turning mushy and sticky quick. Brighton rocks, the trees in the Snake Creek area are great, snow preservation was superb and the pillows all over the place added an element of fun I have never experienced. I tried to go off of as many as I could as the landing was always soft and fluffy. Small but fun mountain with good snow and a lift system that is well suited for lapping steep trees all day long.
Here is the soft snow and the pillows I was talking about. A couple of days after the snow storm, lines right off of the lift remained barely tracked:
Me standing at the top of a steep little line, the Bros hungry for the powder. As you will see in the video at the bottom, the pretty pow was covering some nasty rocks which threw me and I narrowly missed hugging a tree.
Day three Dec 15 - Snowbird:
Amazing terrain, so many sick lines, got to practice my straighlining and starfishing skills a bit. Worst snow of the bunch due to less tree cover (at least where I was skiing) and more sun. With a big dump, this resort is probably absolute heaven. Solid vertical too. Sorry, no pictures here.
Day four & five Dec 16 & 17 - Solitude:
WOW. I mean really really wow. I love this place. It snowed 2 feet in the two days we were there, but wind had blown the trees and some bowls in another 3 it seemed. Skied a good part of the day in waist deep snow, face shots all day long. This place is empty and even around 3pm after a snow storm i was getting long vertical runs of untracked snow. Amazing. The Bros were sinking on me all day long and not because they don't float. Two days in a row of the best snow I have ever skied. The only negative thing I can say about this resort is that it takes a lot more work to get to the fresh snow and get the steep vertical. This is fine by me, cause it helps snow preservation.
This is how much snow there was:
Last day of the trip, my buddy went back to return his snowboard gear, including his boots. Once the gear was returned we hear "Oh, crap! I don't have my shoes and its snowing outside!" ..... Problem solved:
Here is a little Video of the skiing we had. Sorry, the quality is pretty bad, I suck at video editing and the recording was made with a crappy little digital camera.
http://sports.webshots.com/video/3011779080062927787
