VAIL SUCKS

[snoseek]

Small pond, high elevation streams refilling that were bone dry this fall and while some liquid precip brought stream levels up for a while, this extended cold snap has likely brought flows to a trickle if that. So yeah, Cat is water starved this year. As much as we want to dump on Vail, not sure anyone would have had much better luck this season operationally there.

Yeah I can understand the challenge but waiting so late to start up really screwed them. Start early and refill might have helped no?

Either way I look at the 5 year trand and it's not good. Each year the first half has absolutely been terrible and doesn't seem to be getting any better.

 

[4aprice]

Its fine midweek.

70 out of Denver is awful.

A Sunday afternoon heading west on 50 out of tahoe is bullshit too.

Just wait till they really start working what they are planning for Floyd Hill. They are calling it the "Flyover" and it could be a whole new kind of FUBAR for I-70. Might put the "Canyon Chaos" of Utah to shame. That expanded Amtrak Service to Fraser may come in handy.

 

[raisingarizona]

This is the way sadly.

I.dont miss that commute one bit.

I’m really happy that I was a ski bum in the 90’s.

 

[kingslug]

Well...at the moment its very worth it.
I skipped coming here for years as with only 7 days at a shot I couldnt risk road closures and interlodges.
Now I can...

 

[BenedictGomez]

Something to be said for paid parking and reservations.
It worked for Stowe...like it or not.

This is like thanking the arsonist for putting out the destructive fire.

 

[kingslug]

Well...look at the dufference between alta and sbird
Sbird is a zoo today.. parking free fpr all
Alta is...

 

[thetrailboss]

Well...look at the dufference between alta and sbird
Sbird is a zoo today.. parking free fpr all
Alta is...View attachment 64280View attachment 64281

I tried and tried and could not get a parking slot for today at Alta......

 

[raisingarizona]

I tried and tried and could not get a parking slot for today at Alta......

You should have taken the gondola.

 

[thetrailboss]

You should have taken the gondola.

You know, I thought I was forgetting something!

 

[kingslug]

Funny thing is its pretty empty...
I think yesterday squashed a whole lot of people

 

[Smellytele]

Damn, that sounds like Franconia Notch during the eclipse last year.....a once in a lifetime event.

Basically what I'm hearing is that if you want to go to Utah to ski Alta/Bird, don't bother unless you're in slopeside lodging

I was there last year in March and had no issues. Snowed 4-6 inches everyday. Wasn’t a weekend but knew better than to ski up there on a weekend. Went to powder on the weekend

 

[Zand]

I was reading on Twitter (so take it with a grain of salt) that UDOT literally blocked off the road at Snowbird egress and let everyone out of those lots, pretty much stranding everyone at Alta for a couple hours until they decided to let them go.

That's pretty shitty if that's the case. They have the merge zones for a reason.

I've been to Utah 3 times and all 3 times I hit a massive powder day. Granted they were either midweek or late season, but other than slow traffic from the snow itself I never had to deal with a true LCC shitshow. Idk how you guys deal with that even if the skiing is amazing. I'm always content zooming around the empty roads of Vermont even if the skiing isn't as good here.

 

[thetrailboss]

I was reading on Twitter (so take it with a grain of salt) that UDOT literally blocked off the road at Snowbird egress and let everyone out of those lots, pretty much stranding everyone at Alta for a couple hours until they decided to let them go.

That's pretty shitty if that's the case. They have the merge zones for a reason.

I've been to Utah 3 times and all 3 times I hit a massive powder day. Granted they were either midweek or late season, but other than slow traffic from the snow itself I never had to deal with a true LCC shitshow. Idk how you guys deal with that even if the skiing is amazing. I'm always content zooming around the empty roads of Vermont even if the skiing isn't as good here.

I was wondering if they were experimenting with how to let people out. Alta has a legitimate gripe that they only have two real parking lots to empty while Snowbird has four official lots, and several hundred cars on the side of the road....

And to answer your question, I pick my days. I was sick yesterday.