snoskier

I agree with what DH says. I used to live out there and have skied all but Snow Bowl. I personally liked Timberline and they have opened up a huge new area. I've never skied meadows when the canyon area (skiers far right) was open, but meadows is also pretty good. I would add one thing about car vs. bus. If it snows they require 4x4 or chains on the road up to Hood. Sometimes they require 4x4 and chains. Just a heads up if you rent a car. Enjoy.

Snowshoe is actually a nice mountain. The Northwest territory is really nice terrain, HS quad and no lines. The other side of the mountain.... we'll it's Cletus goes skiing. Makes the blue gapers look like pros!

Go up and visit the mountains you want to ski and/or call and ask to speak to the patrol director. Most pro patrols want you to already have OEC certification and/or EMT. Some will train you over the summer, but most want you to have the medical training already.

It looks like it possibly a scam. Google the name and there is all sorts of posting about scams he is allegedly involved in.

Thanks Johnny that is an AWESOME post. There is a lot to digest, but thank you very much. It 100% points me in the right direction. As for being a 46-r it is a lot of fun and I recommend that even if you don't do all 46 that you at least get up in the Adirondacks as it is an amazing place. Snoskier

I am starting this topic as I plan on going up to the Daks this year for some winter camping / skiing. I wanted to see if anyone has any experience or advice. (Johnnylaw?) I am familiar with the Daks and will be a 46er by this winter. I know the basic e.g. Angel slides ect. But if any one has good first time suggestions let me know. Snoskier.

Per the website they will be open on the 18th. Looks like they will actually open this time.

I hope your right I've been scoping back country here in Luz Co. and I am itching to go.

Ok the race is now officially on! Will Sno open their water park before Blue???????

Amazing that no one got killed last weekend. People do stupid things in groups.

M-Bike - yup that was me at gaper day with the furry hat. I guess we have met. I don't think I was really skiing in considerable risk b/c if it was considerable I wouldn't ski it. I've been through the avy classes and have the right gear and feel reasonably comfortable with my assessment skills. I was 100% prepared to hike up and not ski if the conditions didn't look right. People get trapped thinking it is a nice day and they can ski anything. That said, there were three slides on Saturday. Check out the links: http://outdoors.webshots.com/video/3035887350060201085EMLQOR As for 1:45 being a lot of time for the runs. I don't think so it was totally worth it. For one I like to hike so I didn't mind. It is 2.4 miles to HoJos then another .7 to the ravine. So all told it was 2:15 to get to the bowl before you started to hike for your run. The views are worth it. I wish I could have taken some pictures high up, but the transition was frightening enough without taking out my camera. As for getting down I think we left the ravine after 4 and I was in the gift shop by 6 pm. So probably made it to the car about 5:30. Probably took 20 minutes to ski down the sherbie, 10 to deboot and then 45 or so to hike the rest of the way down. (It was only a mile but very icy) Snoskier.

We decided to give Tux a go this past weekend. The avy forecast was a little dicey but the weather was supposed to be nice we decided to go for it. I hauled up the avy gear just in case and thankfully didn't have to use it. We hit the trail at 10 and made it up to HoJo's in 1:45. Plenty of time for me to decide my Volkls are a freaking heavy ski. This was the first real shot of bowl. We took a break and scoped out the conditions at HoJos. Decided to go for it and give Left GUlly a shot. This is on the hike up little headwall looking toward Hillmans (which you can't see at this angle). Made it up to the ravine which was amazing. Worth the hike even if we didn't get to ski. Here is a shot looking up Left Gully Right Gully and Lunch Rocks THe Lip at the end of the day. Me at tux Decent cover on the sherbie Ended up taking one run on Left Gully - i only hiked up to just below the pinch point. There were a bunch a people above it and the word from the rangers was that it was pretty icy. So I erred on the side of caution. I have to say the transition from hiking to skiing was pucker inducing. That freaked me out more than anything. The skiing was steep and the snow was great. Took another on the lower part of the lip just above lunch rocks. Very nice. We were able to ski back to HoJos and then 1/2 way down the Sherbie. The next day there were a TON of people. We got a spot in the lot at 9:30 on Friday, but by 9:30 friday they were lined up and down the road and maxed out the overflow lots. My guess was at least 4-500 + cars easy. All in all great trip - going back for sure. Here is a parting shot of the backside on the drive out.

I drove up yesterday and skied today. Great day. I'll try to do a TR when I get home. Snoskier.

A lot will depend on what slides today and how much loading occurs. High temps will help consolidate the layers. Tomorrows update will give a better picture.

One thing I've been up in the air about is the need for an ice ax. Once the snow pack stabilizes into more spring like conditions is an ax really necessary for the climb? My understanding is that while it is steep in parts there is usually a decent boot pack. I've got the rest of the avy gear, but absent loading or other risk factors I'm probably not going to schlep it up. That said Dodges slide this weekend... http://www.tuckerman.org/accident/20082009.htm

Snowbasin. You have a ton of terrain off john paul and no name peak. Plus some good sidecountry skiing off no name. Just be sure to check the avy reports and bring proper gear before you go out of bounds. Also Deer Valley has a fair amount of tree skiing. People don't go in the trees there - Don't want to rip thier 2K ski suits...

I had thought about a trip to blue, but the weather wasn't didn't look good. So I said if it was nice when I left work I'd try boulder. Left work at 540 got to boulder at 615 was booted up and on the slope at 630. The snow was applesauce/snowconey. It was overcast, but the rain held off until about 730. I skied till 745 for a total of 10 runs. There was no one there and I was able to rip some nice slushy-8s down the trails. Lots of yummy cord. I took a run down pretty much everything. It was fun and I can see why people like it for park. I have to say there was a LOT of snow on some of the trails. 15+ in spots... they will be skiing for a while. I have to say that this mountain knows what it is doing from a PR standpoint. Marketing the mountain as a park is very smart. As a pure ski mountain it is pretty small the runs were nice, but short. Making the runs into park was smart. Given how much it is talked up as a park I was expecting a bit more... there were a good number of features and some HUGE JUMPS, but I wasn't totally blown away.

Great report. Looks like was a very different kind of ski trip. I think you did the right way with a translator ect. Seems like it might be a little daunting just by yourself.

I believe the slush jump is also the 7th ... should be entertaining...

Monday night it started to snow any by tuesday there was 20 inches at snowbird -- we were there. Just in time too because the closed the road about 1/2 hour after we got through and it stayed closed until about 1. Got in line for the tram, but it was a delayed opening they didn't open till 1010 - we got the 4th tram at about 1030. Not much was open up top - only regulator johnson - which is a nice bowl like thing. What was great was that there was way more than 20 inches there... deep poweder. Up to my mid thigh in places. I took a nice face plant at the bottom. Sorry no other good pictures - were were too busy livin it up. Once we got to the bottom of the littlecloud lift we learned the mountain was shutting down for avy work. We were getting interlodged. Somewhat new thing for me but apparently in utah they will make everyone get inside while they fire off avy guns. We took our time and hit some trees on the way down. THen we had to wait in the lodge for a couple hours... After got back on the mountain we rain into a guy who looked like santa drinking a 24 of pabst... (gss in a few years) But we were there to ski!! It was a great week... beleive me I'm not happy about the weather here (pa) either.... but I'm itching to get back onto my skis... SS

day 2 We had heard a lot of things about Snowbasin, all positive, so we decided to check it out. We were no disappointed. Basin is owned by sun valley and it really shows. Everything is first class - except the prices $63 for a ticket. The lodges are VERY nice and the people are very laid back. It is like a luxury resort meets a local ski resort. The mountain is set up to move you. There are two gondolas and one HSQ. The quad and needles gondola are at the base area and the HSQ serves the tram (very short) and some awsome hike - to terrain. The needles gondola serves most of the rest of the mountain and the second gondola strawberry serves the far left (skier right) of the mountain. The strawberry area is mainly blue/black and just a fun area to ski. Shot of the base area - John paul goes up toward the right We started on the quad for a couple run and then headed over to strawberry. Before we went to strawberry skiied some fun lines. - off john paul - This was a couple days after a storm, but the snow was still fresh. Dropped into snow nice boot/knee deep snow. Nice line about to be skiied - This is from the top of strawberry - looking over the backside toward ogden. The cons to the area is that it is lower elevation and sunny. Thus, the snow can get a sun crust, great for spring skiing - no so great for powder skiing. That is what happened here... there was a thin crust and the three dips I was skiing with didn't follow the tracks. This is a shot looking from the strawberry area. All in all great area - there is no slopeside lodging so the crowds aren't bad. It is a ton of fun to ski and big enough that it hold snow and merits skiing days after a storm.

Since this is going to encompass a few days I will do it in parts. I flew out of PHL with a stop over in STL. As it was valentines day Southwest was in the spirt. Having never been to Utah I was stoked just by drive to the airport. Day One - Alta. Woke up early b/c our first stop was Alta - several reasons. Mainly we wanted to ski it and my buddy knew the guys that ran the Alta ski shop. The first thing we realized was that skiers at alta were serious. The lifts didn't open until 9:15 and at 8:00 am there were already people lining up. Now a powder day I could understand an early line, but the last storm was friday night (7-12 inches) and had already been tracked up saturday. We met up with my buddies friends and rented some powder skis. I got the Coombas. I will post a seperate thread on the powder skis. But I was very glad that I did. This first shot was of Superior which is across the canyon from Alta. You can't make it out in the photos but there are traverse lines up the peaks and people were skiing this. Given the huge line that had developed for the collins lift we took up the wildcat lift. dropped into a nice little bowl for my first taste of utah powder... I was hooked. another shot off wildcat. We then played around off the collins lift - we skiied off the high traverse several times. We then met with my buddies friends who gave us the locals tour of alta. This was off the backside of the high traverse - it was a little less cut up on top. This was just turned around from the previous shot. You can see some nice low angle powder and the transfer tow which takes you between the base areas. We also did the signature run at alta Alf's High Rustler right before lunch. It is the run just to the left of the orange flag. A ton of fun 35-45 degrees. Needless to say the legs were burning. You can also see the ski shop in the pictures. If you ever go to utah rent from them - prices are good and they are very helpful. Another shot from lunch. You can see the collins lift (left) and wildcat lift (right). After lunch we headed over to catherine's area off the supreme triple. The one thing I didn't get a picture of was the magiv carpet you loaded the lift. It was a fixed grip chair but having the carpet let them run the lift faster. Pretty slick. I've heard about them in Europe but this was the first I had seen in the states. Catherines was pretty cool. Tons of trees, chutes and cliffs. There was a little hike, but it wasn't bad. Two of my friends navigating a little chute. All in all - Alta was a great skiers mountain. Vertical is only about 2000 feet, but it skis BIG! There is a ton of good terrain off the collins lift and the high traverse. Catherines is a fun area that you can explore. The only caution is that alta doesnt have double diamonds. So if you are skiing an expert trail no telling what you can come across. That made a couple times a little hairy when you ski up to ledge and just keeps going and going and going. All in all it was a great day - we were livin the dream. We skiied from open to close and loved every minute. I'll try to post the other days - but as a preview we got a storm in on monday night that dropped 20 inches and then a total of 35 by wednesday am. It was epic powder days on tues, wed and thurs.

Now that I am on my friends computer I will post something a little better. I am out for the week sat to sat. They got snow friday / sat. I got in saturday pm. On sunday we skied Alta. It was sweet my buddy knows some locals so we hit up some hidden stashes. Sunny and clear skies. Monday we hit snowbasin which had hardly been tracked up. We did our part.... Today - we hit snowbird. At 530am they had 12 inches reported but by the end of the day 20. They had a delayed start and didn't open until 1015. We got up top about 1045-50 and the only run open was the one under the littlecup double. We got to the double and were told that the mountain was closed. We stopped briefly at the mid gad lodge (I'll post pictures of everyone milling...) We then went to the bottom and played in the trees all the way down. It was great. Got to the bottom about 1130. By noon patrol was done with thier sweep and they ushered everyone inside the lodges. Then it was like Nam... they were shooting everything... about 1250 they opened back up and we took gadzoom to littlecup and lapped that a couple times, but they put it on a wind hold so we ducked down to gadzoom and played in the trees more. about 4-6 more runs off zoom. We took one notable traverse and found a mostly untracked gully (2 people before us...) it was knee deep to thigh deep - crazy fun. The drop in was one of the hairier things i'd every done. All in all great day. Tommorrow will be crazy going to snowbasin which between 5pm yesterday and 5pm today picked up 29.8 inches. It is still snowing!!! I picked up a pair of volkl kuro's which are 132 underfoot (i think) ... should be fun.... ss

I'm out in utah this week listening to a cascade of avy cannons. We are currently in the lodges bc they have shut down the mountain bc of too much snow. This am we hit snowbird they were reporting 12 but was 20+ + blown in. We got about the 5th tram and had face shots from the top. At mid mountain we got the news that they were shutting down the mounatin. Thus the question what is one run in knee and thigh worth? (Remember I'm 6'3" so when I say deep were talkin deep. I'm in for 52 today and it was totally worth it! They might re open at one. My fingers are crossed. They are calling for 30 inches by wednesday am. Stoke! Snoskier

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to try to snag a pair either day one or two. I'll report back... SS