Utah 4/13-4/17/21

[Zand]

Ugh. I think I know what stop you are talking about. Yeah, they ended loading there last year IIRC. Due to traffic I think. Makes no sense in my mind as there is a large parking lot there.

Didn't make sense to me either, especially since I used the identically placed stop in BCC yesterday.

Some of the local mets are saying that there might be a prolonged fetch off the lake into tomorrow and that some epic totals might be in store...

 

[thetrailboss]

Didn't make sense to me either, especially since I used the identically placed stop in BCC yesterday.

Some of the local mets are saying that there might be a prolonged fetch off the lake into tomorrow and that some epic totals might be in store...

Yes. It is still snowing at my place in SLC. Looks like it is not ending anytime soon. Looks like you are lucking out. I think that BCC may not be as nuts today. LCC looks great though. I am hoping to get out tomorrow.

 

[thetrailboss]

And as to the bus stop, I think the issue is the "left turn" to get onto 210 and up the road.

 

[Zand]

Heading back out in a few, gonna grab the bus at the Sandy Walgreens. Done that once before.

Thinking I might head up to Alta instead of Snowbird. Mineral Basin, Road to Provo, and Cirque Traverse are all closed at Snowbird so that's pretty much all their good stuff. At least Alta has High T, Wildcat Bowl, and Supreme Bowl.

 

[thetrailboss]

Heading back out in a few, gonna grab the bus at the Sandy Walgreens. Done that once before.

Thinking I might head up to Alta instead of Snowbird. Mineral Basin, Road to Provo, and Cirque Traverse are all closed at Snowbird so that's pretty much all their good stuff. At least Alta has High T, Wildcat Bowl, and Supreme Bowl.

Yeah, Snowbird has a lot down due to avalanche danger.

 

[Zand]

Thursday report: Alta

So after the failed first attempt to get up the canyon as documented above, I waited a bit for traffic to clear before taking the bus up and clicking in shortly after noon. Despite the traffic this morning, virtually no lines for any lift this afternoon. 4" of snow fell throughout the day with some heavier bursts followed by temporary clearing. I would describe it as an "east coast powder day" with great snow, but very easy to find ice and rocks underneath.

First run was High Rustler which had lots of powder and a few slick spots. Tough visibility when I hit it. Became a common theme that when I was on a lift, I could see the whole mountain and the sun was almost coming out, then white out every time I started my way down the traverse.



Next was the bowl underneath the Wildcat chair which is always full of powder in plain view. Kind of a short run with some runout but always worth a few face shots.



Hit Greely Bowl next which was full of untouched powder. Unfortunately I had never skied that run before so I was afraid of getting stuck in the flats at the bottom and ended up following tracks for the 2nd half because I couldn't see. But the top was super. No pictures there...zero vis.

Hit Supreme for a couple runs in Supreme Bowl which were pretty sweet though very tracked out. While it was fun, the runout at the bottom,was super sticky and I figured I was better off skiing a less tracked out High Traverse off Collins with no runout.





Took Sugarloaf up to (I think) Yellow Trail to Glory Gulch. This is another area I've never been in (you know how some houses have secret rooms and shit? That's Alta) and it was interesting. A few opportunities for fresh powder but also a couple areas of slogging across flats. But never even knew it was there so fun to discover new terrain.



Spent the last couple hours hitting stuff off High Traverse which I'm finally starting to figure out. I've always just kind of ended up wherever I did when I skied it, but with visibility improving a bit I started learning the different lines and objects to look for. Highlights were Jitterbug and Santa Claus, which seemed to be less skied and full of powder. Lowlight was crushing some turns in said powder and suddenly crossing the middle traverse which was a sheet of ice and totally eating shit. Honestly wish they'd fence off the middle traverse so you can have nice uninterrupted runs to the bottom. Has some real Killington vibes the way it is now.





So unfortunately a shorter day due to this morning's misadventure, but not sure my legs would've lasted much longer. NWS says another 5-8" through tomorrow, so lets do it again. Probably Snowbird this time.

 

[mikec142]

First...great report and pix. Keeping me stoked. I'm super impressed with your level of calm...the whole car/bus debacle when I'm all geared up would put me over the top. I'd be sweating and cursing.

 

[Zand]

First...great report and pix. Keeping me stoked. I'm super impressed with your level of calm...the whole car/bus debacle when I'm all geared up would put me over the top. I'd be sweating and cursing.

I was. Besides traffic being heavy, that was the other reason I went back to the hotel for a couple hours.

 

[Zand]

Friday report: Snowbird

Arrived around 9:30 to a very brief line at Gadzoom, but was soon off to the top and the Cirque Traverse. Had no interest in the technical stuff, so made my way to the wide open bowl that is Lower Cirque. The snow from the past couple of days settled into a nice base, with many more inches of fluff on top making for a fantastic run.



Headed back up to Little Cloud and came back down under the lift. Impossible to see but almost entirely deep powder and not much to worry about.



Took one more run off Little Cloud down to skiers right of Regulator which was even more deep. Wind was kinda blowing snow in that direction and there were a few face shots to be had. Headed down to Gad 2 which had a 5 minute line for some reason, by far the longest I saw today. Decided to do one run over there...not sure if it was named but a nice woods shot skiers right of the liftline. A bit more tracked out but super soft.



With the line being present only at Gad 2, figured I'd head back to Little Cloud and did a repeat run down Lower Cirque. On the way I noticed Path to Paradise was open into Mineral Basin. But first things first, Lower Cirque was still nice and powdery.



Headed up Peruvian, through the tunnel, and out into a very low visibility Mineral Basin. While the visibility was bad, the whole area was just loaded with fresh powder. First couple runs I played around on some untracked lines, with enough visibility to not get into any trouble. 3rd run I traversed out towards the Bookends and all of a sudden the fog moved in and visibility was zero. Honestly was terrified of accidently ending up at a cliff as I'd never been back there before. Made my way down a powdery slope and eventually out of the fog in one piece. Wouldve really enjoyed it with some visibility but kinda freaky as it was.



Had a late lunch at the summit then headed down the Cirque to Glen's which was similar to Lower Cirque. Not the longest run in the world but fun while it lasts.
Made my way back up to Little Cloud and came back down underneath which was pretty tracked out and bumpy. Traversed out towards Mark Malu through an open gate which wasn't really worth it. A couple brief powder shots but spent way more time skiing sideways than downhill.

Was getting pretty spent at that point so hit the Cirque one more time to Wilbere Chute. This run was sweet and powdery at the top but the bottom was baking in the sun that was peeking through. Probably won't be skiable tomorrow. Good steep run though.



On the bus ride back down I noticed one of my edges was broken. No idea when it happened (had to have been on the Cirque Traverse but I didn't feel any big hits on the rocks). But yeah...big bummer. Rented some skis for my last day tomorrow. Unfortunately the powder extravaganza is over, but with 30" in the past 3 days it was very fun while it lasted and wildly exceeded the expectations coming into the week.

Probably do an Alta/Snowbird combo for my final day tomorrow.

 

[thetrailboss]

Nice TR. Cirque Traverse is never well-covered. It gets blown off. I wish they would do mitigation work like Alta did with the High T (mats and turf to cover the rocks).

 

[Zand]

Saturday report: Snowbird and Alta

In a big change from the rest of this week, I woke up to brilliant blue skies and rapidly warming temps. Fortunately it was still cool in the canyon which kept most of the snow skiable. Got to the Gad chair around 9:30 and clicked into my "rental" Blizzard Bonifides. So these were a little bit longer and wider, but a lot heavier and stiffer than my Steadfasts. They skied like a dream on the groomers and handled the crud very well. Like I said, even before I blew out the edge I was still planning on buying new skis this year and I think I found a good match!

Anyway, first run I couldn't help but head right down one of the cruisers back to the bottom and let those skis run on the fresh cord. Been skiing fresh powder for 3 straight days and I gotta admit it kinda felt nice to rip a nice wide groomer. Can't complain about that view either.



Headed up to Little Cloud and slashed through the crud under the lift before traversing over to one of the little bowls to get like 7 whole turns in untouched pow. They were a sweet 7 turns.



Headed over to Mineral Basin since I could actually see today. Turns out everyone else had the same idea as I found a 10-15 minute line at the bottom! Caught me by surprise. Ungroomed was skiing okay back there today, but already manking up and not worth the line when the rest of the mountain was ski on with softer snow.



Got the hell out of there and hit Upper Cirque which had less powder than Lower Cirque did yestefday, but had some pretty sweet crud and powder bumps which made for fun turns. Plus, against all odds I managed to get through the traverse with my edges intact.



Took a run through Mid Baldy Traverse off Peruvian which was a waste of time. Didn't have the energy to hike up to do the real thing. There's nothing good off the mid traverse though, so skied down and ripped the groomers back to Gad side for lunch at the trailer.

After lunch I headed up Gadzoom and spied some untracked powder above the lift on Cirque Chutes. Traversed over...the tops were closed but a lower traverse was open and no one was taking it. It ended up being a damn good run even from halfway down, and there were quite a few untracked turns to be had!



One of my ulterior motives for spending so much time on this side was that I was hoping to catch the opening of Road to Provo which would provide tons of fresh snow. But unfortunately no dice by 12:30 and I wanted to get over to Alta.

Headed down one of the groomers in Mineral Basin which was getting very choppy (and still busy) and took Baldy over to Alta. Took EBT over to Ballroom, traversed pretty far out and found a nice soft line to take down.



Found a decent line at Collins, and headed up to the traverse out to Greely Hill. Took a few turns before following another traverse over to (I think) High Nowhere. Tons of soft snow on a good steep pitch to the bottom.



Took the rope tow and Sunnyside over to Supreme which was ski on. Took a nice lap through Supreme Bowl which had more soft snow and few people. Nice run.



Curiousity got the best of me and I went to check out Cecret Saddle which I've never seen open till today. Turns out it's a short pitch which today had real crusty snow followed by a wicked runout. Traversed the hell out of there and back to Devils Elbow.

After a beer stop at GMD, finished up with a couple runs off High T. First was (I think) Jitterbug which was sweet at the top but quickly got very manky and hard to turn. Last run was High Rustler. Instead of hiking to the top I've been taking the lazy traverse around the side of the peak. It was fine yesterday, but found all kinds of nasty rocks and stumps today. Made it through unscathed and finally popped out onto a sweet Rustler. Nice soft snow all the way to the bottom.



Unfortunately what had become an absolute dream week has come to an end. 30" over 3 days followed by a bluebird stunner to finish it up. That bad first day is a distant memory. Unfortunately my season is probably down to a Superstar day in May, but what a week for mid April.

 

[Tonyr]

What a great last trip to end the season, you hit the jackpot. Thanks for sharing the week with us.

 

[jimk]

What a great last trip to end the season, you hit the jackpot. Thanks for sharing the week with us.

Exactly. Happy for Zand! He just might have hit the last truly winter-like snowy week of the season in the Wasatch. Great conditions as conveyed by those super white Saturday photos. As I was doing errands around SLC today in nice cool sunshine I knew it was probably a great sunny day up on the slopes.

 

[180]

Bonafides, great choice!

 

[thetrailboss]

Looks like it worked out well for you. Thoughts on Alta/Bird now?

 

[jimk]

Besides catching a nice April snow dump, I didn't realize how great @Zand 's timing was based on logistical factors. Today was Alta's last day except for next Sat and Sun. Today was the last day the UTA buses ran to BCC and LCC. Today was last day for Gadzoom and Gad 2 chairs at Snowbird (where a lot of the best powder skiing was this week). Nice planning Zand!
Three shots from 18 Apr 21, Snowbird:

 

[LonghornSkier]

How does it work when they close those two lifts? Do they keep mid gad open in case you ski below little cloud?

 

[Zand]

How does it work when they close those two lifts? Do they keep mid gad open in case you ski below little cloud?

You can ski down to the top of Big Emma and then traverse. Assuming they rope off anything below that. Not sure if Wilbere keeps running, but that helps get over there too.

 

[thetrailboss]

You can ski down to the top of Big Emma and then traverse. Assuming they rope off anything below that. Not sure if Wilbere keeps running, but that helps get over there too.

Right. Wilbere used to be open relatively late but as of late it closes earlier. They normally rope off the lower portions of Gad Valley to direct folks back to the Tram Base.

 

[Zand]

Looks like it worked out well for you. Thoughts on Alta/Bird now?

Snowbird is interesting to me. Lots of pretty crazy inbounds stuff (e.g. Great Scott, some of the Upper Cirque chutes, Get Serious Chutes, Gad Chutes) that looked over my head (and I dont say that often, not even at a place like Jackson) and a lot of good stuff (the rest of the Cirque, Gad 2, Bookends side of Mineral, lower Tram Side). But it feels like a pain in the ass to lap the good stuff. Not as bad as Solitude, but for example if you want to ski the Cirque you either have to take the Tram (not a fun idea this year) or you have to take 2 to 3 lifts to get back to where you want to be. Mineral always looks so awesome but they close it in heavy snow, you can't see in any kind of cloudy weather, and once its sunny enough to see, the snow gets cooked in a matter of hours. It's an awesome place, just has a fair share of flaws.

Alta I had already spent a decent amount of time yet, but I was still discovering new terrain yesterday that I hadnt skied before. It looks so small on the map, but it's crazy how much hidden stuff there is there that's lift serviced, never mind the hike-to stuff. Don't get me wrong, I like Snowbird and it's great when the snow is good, but I flat out like Alta a lot more. But they both still pale in comparison to Jackson regarding terrain and accessibility IMO. The only problem with the accessibility at Jackson is that powder gets eaten up within 30 minutes whereas Alta and Snowbird have untouched areas for days. But its so much easier to lap great terrain at Jackson and there's more of it.

Still interested in finally trying Big Sky next year and seeing how it stacks up.