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Brighton, Utah: Feb. 8, 2017

thetrailboss

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Date: February 8, 2017

Resort: Brighton, Utah

Conditions/Weather: P (114" base); Sunny with temps in the 30's.

Ski Day No. 16

Report: It has been a while since I have written a report and I figured considering the winter we are having, and the fact that a fair number of our folks here are skiers or passholders of Boyne Resorts, that a report from my trip to Brighton would be a good idea. Brighton is killing it this season--already at 421" of snow for the season. The contrast between this trip and my last visit during a warm January 2014 day when the snowpack was low was night and day.

I met up with a colleague and we began our morning at the Milly Express. The last time I skied it the terrain was limited to a couple ways down on snowmaking runs with rocks poking out left and right. Well, it was all filled in now and we lapped it for the first hour or so hitting Lone Pine, Scree Slope, Little Millie, Devil's Dip, Back Bone, Wee Willow, Canyon, and Christy Bowl. Lone Pine, Scree Slope, and Little Milly offered wind blown goodness and nice chalky snow. No rocks to jump over. The steep pitch and great snow made us smile.

Eventually, we had to pull ourselves away to hit some of the other terrain and we skied along Majestic Access to Crest Express, where we skied wonderfully soft groomed snow on Tantamount to Snake Creek Access.

Brighton has awesome tree skiing--both on and off the map. Like Milly, we had to spend an hour or so working the lines on Snake Creek. Though there was a small line at each lift, there was NOBODY on our runs or in the trees. Doyle's Dive, right under the lift, was the first call and it was chalky and soft. My 191 cm powder skis sliced and diced. It was not long before I was in the woods and my buddy followed. The lines were amazing. Based upon that, we headed into Snake Bowl and I was eager to jump off the traverse into one of the first lines that surely delivered. My buddy continued into the bowl proper and gave a great report. After poking through more trees, we were back on the lift and back into the Bowl. This time I skied all the way over. Looks were deceiving--I thought we had lost a lot of vertical and that it was only a few turns. Instead it was a nice long ride down to Thunder Road.

We hit the other side of Snake Creek diving into Hard Coin--another favorite from my 2014 visit--and it delivered the goods. It needed a repeat.

After a run down Lone Star, we peered up the wide open expanse of Rein's Run and Clark's Roost and knew we had to do it. Up Great Western we went and slayed more nice wind blown essence on Rein's.

My buddy left and I got back into the same area--Rein's and Clark's before heading back to Crest and closing out on a long cruiser down Pacific Highway to Milly Access.

While a lot of folks go for Alta and Park City, Brighton is a unique area that has almost all high speed lifts, good terrain variety, top-to-bottom skiing, and great trees. It is a local's spot for sure that is laid back. Be sure to visit. Pics coming up next.....
 

thetrailboss

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Now pics.....

Lone Pine and Scree Slope over on Milly:
ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486675684.590389.jpgImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486675703.954690.jpgImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486675717.478373.jpgImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486675717.478373.jpgImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486675763.840339.jpg


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thetrailboss

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Amazing views from Great Western. Can you see Snowbird?

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486676191.488449.jpg

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486676204.059045.jpg

Look closely for the Tram.


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thetrailboss

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Rein's

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486676304.352417.jpg

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486676337.558468.jpg

It's going to be a while before this skidder moves....

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486676374.303654.jpg

That's a house

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486676390.248901.jpg

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1486676409.029644.jpg



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4aprice

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Way to get me stoked. 5 weeks and I'll be back at BCC. Brighton has got some great stuff and Hard Coin is my "run to" when there's storm skiing to be had. Thanks for the report.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ
 

NYDB

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Thanks for the report. I really want to get out there in the next couple of years and do 4-5 days at brighton/solitude on the max pass.
 

skimagic

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I was there on Feb 7 floating through the powder, snowed pretty much all day with a 2 day total of 17", way more than its bigger neighbors in little cottonwood. We took one DEEP powder run off greatwestern before wind shut it down. There was plenty of snow and terrain elsewhere. We liked Brighton enough to go back Feb 8 for sun runs. Trees are amazing. Although it's known as a snowboard haven, it looked to be 50-50 and everyone was having a blast. It does have a flat middle section but the easy cruise through trees made up for it.

View to Great Western face.IMG_20170208_115753085.jpg
 

snoseek

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I love that hill so much. Lifts are fast and laid out so well. It skis bigger than its stats suggest and overall is underrated big time
 

4aprice

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I love that hill so much. Lifts are fast and laid out so well. It skis bigger than its stats suggest and overall is underrated big time

I think the entire BCC is underrated. We love Brighton and Solitude and actually spend more time there then LCC. Alta/Snowbird are classic and unforgiving but, those 2 kick some a.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ
 
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