Best West Coast conditions (February 2016)?

[Abominable]

TTB - solitude summit lift has been closed past two days means upper mountain and upper honeycomb untouched. Call in sick, I'll buy beers.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[BenedictGomez]

I can put the car in a no parking Monday and Thursday 8:30-10:00 am spot, and get back to the car just in time Monday morning to move to legal parking

BARF. Good god do I NOT miss those days. NYC parking tickets were my monthly "parking garage" fee. Much cheaper.

Dumping here in Utah.....

Possible storm early next week too. Then in looks to dry out right in time for my arrival, but hopefully these twin snowfalls will leave conditions nice.

EDIT: Hmmm... the one next week looks much better tonight than it did yesterday, hopefully that stays on the map.

solitude summit lift has been closed past two days means upper mountain and upper honeycomb untouched.

High winds?

 

[Abominable]

Maintenance, according to website.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[KustyTheKlown]

yeah except I don't get parking tickets on a monthly basis. a garage would be about $250-350 a month. i spend less than that annually on parking tickets. you can get up to 4-5 alt side tickets ($70 each I believe) before it compares to a garage cost. but you also run the risk of getting booted or towed if you have many outstanding tickets. Best to just work the parking into my routine 4x a week, which is much easier in bk than Manhattan anyway

 

[thetrailboss]

TTB - solitude summit lift has been closed past two days means upper mountain and upper honeycomb untouched. Call in sick, I'll buy beers.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

Damn. I got an invite to go to Brighton today but could not get out of work. Also have a Solitude pass to burn.

Cat skiing at Alta for me on Saturday. Going to be sick!

 

[BenedictGomez]

yeah except I don't get parking tickets on a monthly basis. a garage would be about $250-350 a month. i spend less than that annually on parking tickets. you can get up to 4-5 alt side tickets ($70 each I believe) before it compares to a garage cost. but you also run the risk of getting booted or towed if you have many outstanding tickets.

I lived in Manhattan; way more coin. Garages in my neighborhood, I cant recall exactly to be honest, but I believe it was something like $1,000 per month. That's a LOT of parking tix!

 

[jimk]

Just finished day four out here. Places with low elevation and lots of sun are getting a little thin. Bottom of strawberry (sbasin) for example. Powder country (powmow) is closed and was told they need a lot of snow to open it back up, more than we got today?

Skiing has been good though with soft spring skiing over the weekend and good storm skiing today (snowbird). They were calling for 18+ overnight but I'm not sure about that. But should be a couple inches here and there every day and night this week to keep it fresh.

Agree the bird is just not set up well for intermediates (although min basin was closed due to storm). The blue trails are really just access roads for the gnar. Serious frickin gnar though, steep and deep today in the woods. Weird layout, at least where I was (gad?). One of those places you could spend a season learning how to link different sections. (First impressions after one day marred by lightning holds).

Powmow has some wonderful cruisers to go along with all the trees and bowls. We'll be back there end of week. Fun place. Hairy armpits.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

I was there on the morning of the 14th too, left for airport around 1230pm during second lightening closure. Gad 2 was very nice that morning from the first wave of about 6" new snow on Sunday night. Wish I could have stayed. You have good timing, fewer storms over the last three weeks out in UT. Here are some pics from Snowbird from Mar 12-14:
http://www.epicski.com/t/146221/snowbird-ut-march-12-2016-with-bobmc#post_1986623

 

[Scruffy]

...

Cat skiing at Alta for me on Saturday. Going to be sick!

Nice! I've done that. Hope the powder is there for you.

 

[thetrailboss]

Nice! I've done that. Hope the powder is there for you.

Yes, looking very good!

 

[4aprice]

I was there on the morning of the 14th too, left for airport around 1230pm during second lightening closure. Gad 2 was very nice that morning from the first wave of about 6" new snow on Sunday night. Wish I could have stayed. You have good timing, fewer storms over the last three weeks out in UT. Here are some pics from Snowbird from Mar 12-14:
http://www.epicski.com/t/146221/snowbird-ut-march-12-2016-with-bobmc#post_1986623

Great pics Jim. I have to laugh when people are saying it hasn't snowed in a while conditions are just ok. Ok? Go look at some photo's from the snow starved east and tell me "oh its just ok". While snow out there is always likely its not a certainty. I'm very fond of pointing out that I've been out there when all it did was snow and I've been out there when there wasn't a flake of snow, but everytime I've been out there I've had a great time. (including last year which was a disaster to most out there, I know easterners who would give their right arm for that this year). From the photo's it looks like a very healthy base and no matter if we get pow or tanning sun I'm getting very excited to get out there.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[BenedictGomez]

From the photo's it looks like a very healthy base and no matter if we get pow or tanning sun I'm getting very excited to get out there.

Ditto. Some great pictures. That Mineral Basin area looks pretty intriguing. Shortish' runs I gather? But looks wide open choose-your-own-advernture sort of thing.

 

[thetrailboss]

Ditto. Some great pictures. That Mineral Basin area looks pretty intriguing. Shortish' runs I gather? But looks wide open choose-your-own-advernture sort of thing.

Mineral Basin has about 1,200 vertical or so. It is wide open. Definitely what separates Snowbird from pretty much every other resort. Be sure to get into the Bookends. Baldy Express is often overlooked, but offers mellow low angle stuff that is fun for cruising and also access into the Patrol Bowl area which is fun, even with a hike out to MBX.

 

[thetrailboss]

And the skiing has been quite good out here this season...especially since 2014-2015 sucked so badly.

 

[4aprice]

Ditto. Some great pictures. That Mineral Basin area looks pretty intriguing. Shortish' runs I gather? But looks wide open choose-your-own-advernture sort of thing.

There not that short. I don't know what the vert is back there but its got to be at least 1200+. The lift to the side (Don't remember the name) that goes to the Bird/Alta gate is much less vertical and much less pitch.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[4aprice]

And the skiing has been quite good out here this season...especially since 2014-2015 sucked so badly.

And I repeat even then it was better then the east.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[thetrailboss]

And I repeat even then it was better then the east.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

December and Early January were solid. April was decent. January-April had no snow. We had (relatively) low bases. My skiing in Vermont and NH in March 2015 was pretty damn good......some of the best I had last year. Obviously our very low 330" season is going to be better than most places on the east coast, but for us it was very low....average is 500". Looks like we are indeed on track for an average season.

And I just checked....MBX has about 1,500 vertical feet. More than I was thinking. Feels shorter in areas because of the traverses. Baldy Express has 1,000 vertical.

 

[4aprice]

December and Early January were solid. April was decent. January-April had no snow. We had (relatively) low bases. My skiing in Vermont and NH in March 2015 was pretty damn good......some of the best I had last year. Obviously our very low 330" season is going to be better than most places on the east coast, but for us it was very low....average is 500". Looks like we are indeed on track for an average season.


And I just checked....MBX has about 1,500 vertical feet. More than I was thinking. Feels shorter in areas because of the traverses. Baldy Express has 1,000 vertical.

Which to me means great. The base was low last year but the skiing was still the highlight of the year. I was out there the season they had like 700", explored a lot and yea last year saw things I had never seen before (Like cliffs, boulders and stumps), but it was still very skiable. Pow Mow at 50% (because anything below Hidden Lake was bare) was still more then the average eastern mountain. Eastern skiing is and can be great but the Rockies are the pinnacle in my eyes thus our desire to get out there one of these days.

Mineral is no one trick pony. There are infinite ways to attack it and it would take forever to find its nook and cranny's. The whole of Snowbird is that way. You could never ski it all in one season.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[thetrailboss]

I'm THRILLED that it is average!

 

[snoseek]

Next storm will put us at 450 ytd i think. I think we may pass 500 with some luck. This has been a long time coming for us out here.

Sent from my LG-H345 using Tapatalk

 

[Domeskier]

Looks like Alyeska broke 700" about 10 days ago. 12" base at sea level, of course....