Snowbird 12/20, 12/23 and 12/24 (a VERY eventful day)

[Skrn]

We just wrapped our first ski trip west. We spent 3 days at Snowbird. Salt Lake City had a dry week from 12/15 to 12/22. So by 12/20, which was our first day at Snowbird, the condition was not great, hard pack, wind scoured. But hey, it is not great by Utah standard. It was not bad at all by New England standard and we still had a lot of fun! There was still plenty of soft (but wet) snow in mineral basin, which became open that day. We skied a few lines off cirque traverse. Not all lines are skieable due to rocks. But the ones skiable were fun: Wilbur, Wilma, Barry Barry Steep, Silverfox etc... The top of the cirque was in bad shape. Many scratches later, we learned the hard way that you need to stay low to avoid rocks. It will be good by late January.

12/23 is an interesting day. Started the day dry with bad condition but it started to dump snow by noon despite forecast didn’t call for snow. It only snowed a few inches but made a huge difference. More lines off cirque and several runs off Peruvian. It is amazing that a small amount of traverse on baldy side can lead you to plenty powder pockets. Great day.

Christmas Eve was a crazy eventful day. Morning was dry. The snow from previous day was tracked out. With the poor condition and early season cover. We got into a bit of trouble in get serous chutes and had to slowly navigate out. Got cliffed out once on baldy too. Then soon it started to snow hard. Turning this day into a mini powder day. With the snow, everything skied well. I enjoyed the lines at the end of cirque the most, more snow due to less traffic. Good snow and steep terrain. Snowbird is really a special place. At Christmas Eve we watched torchlight parade, fireworks and Santa. Kids were excited. This is our 2nd year in a row spending Xmas eve at snowbird. Maybe making it a tradition?

Sharing a short video about this crazy eventful Christmas Eve:
https://youtu.be/3EQ_9Err_54

Will post picture later today

 

[Tonyr]

Those conditions look awesome to me!

 

[nhskier1969]

Great photos and video

 

[jimk]

I enjoyed that. Those night time videos were great! Super cute kids! I'm spending the second half of this winter at the Bird and it was fun to get a video preview.

 

[thetrailboss]

Nice pics and video. I probably skied by you on Sunday and didn't even know it. Feel free to PM me next time.

Cirque Traverse ALWAYS sucks. It is just too exposed to wind and elements. Alta, to their credit, has done a lot to improve the High Traverse with mats, snow fencing, and other work. The HT is very similar to the Cirque Traverse in terms of exposure, but a bit lower of a ridgeline. Snowbird has slowly been trying to fix it.

The western facing aspects of the Cirque Traverse that drop into the Gad Valley also don't generally ski too well because of exposure and sun.

And it is really easy to cliff out at Snowbird for sure. My first season there I found a lot of cliffs :lol: To their credit they usually mark them pretty well so you get some warning before it is too late.

The conditions this year have been really good. Compare it to 2017-2018 when we had no snow. You're spot on in saying that even a little bit of new snow up there makes a huge difference. It seems that 6" skis like so much more.

I am also glad the kids got to see Santa descend from the Tram on Christmas Eve. That is a longstanding Snowbird tradition.

Looks like you had an awesome time.

 

[Skrn]

Great photos and video

Thank you!

 

[Skrn]

I enjoyed that. Those night time videos were great! Super cute kids! I'm spending the second half of this winter at the Bird and it was fun to get a video preview.

Thank you, sir. Glad you like the video. I am super jealous that you can spend half of a winter at the Bird. Absolutely one of the best skiing destinations. Enjoy!

 

[Skrn]

Will PM you next time. We love Alta/Bird so much that it is becoming our annual trip (or more). Would love to ski with you to know the mountain more. Every time we visited SLC, my wife and I would talk about potentially moving to SLC. The skiing is so good. And every trip we ran into people who lived in NE before they moved to SLC for skiing. One day we may end up doing what you did years ago. Would be super excited to become Alta/Bird passholders. 7 days from Ikon are not enough!

Nice pics and video. I probably skied by you on Sunday and didn't even know it. Feel free to PM me next time.

Cirque Traverse ALWAYS sucks. It is just too exposed to wind and elements. Alta, to their credit, has done a lot to improve the High Traverse with mats, snow fencing, and other work. The HT is very similar to the Cirque Traverse in terms of exposure, but a bit lower of a ridgeline. Snowbird has slowly been trying to fix it.

The western facing aspects of the Cirque Traverse that drop into the Gad Valley also don't generally ski too well because of exposure and sun.

And it is really easy to cliff out at Snowbird for sure. My first season there I found a lot of cliffs :lol: To their credit they usually mark them pretty well so you get some warning before it is too late.

The conditions this year have been really good. Compare it to 2017-2018 when we had no snow. You're spot on in saying that even a little bit of new snow up there makes a huge difference. It seems that 6" skis like so much more.

I am also glad the kids got to see Santa descend from the Tram on Christmas Eve. That is a longstanding Snowbird tradition.

Looks like you had an awesome time.