I'm back from UTAHrd after 7 days of skiing the 4 hills mentioned. We stayed at the Ogden Marriott which I'll give 4 outta 5 stars for service, quality and accomodations. Ogden is a city/town trying to remake itself, so there is a sense of the new Ogden (ski companies have been moving in like Salomon), 25th Street is getting gentrified with upscalish restaurants and bistros, liquor laws are getting relaxed as of July 1, but also a sense of older biz on the ropes, like the pawn shops, ma n pa stores, and tons of commercial vacancies all over town.
We got into town before lunch last Saturday, checked in and a few of us took a shuttle up to Snowbasin for a PM session. We hit Snowbasin Sat, Sun, Tues and Fri. We hit Powder Mtn on Mon and Thursday. Wednesday was a non ski day for the gapers so we rented a van and 6 of us hit Alta/ Snowbird for better snow/colder temps. Temps ranged from 45-69 degrees, each day getting progressively warmer, little to no wind and mostly sunny each day with variable clouds on a couple days.We had spring snow and temps all week. Not a single flake fell . Snow is in the forecast today and Monday, figures. The general program each day was to follow the sun around each mountain to avoid the crust. Generally speaking, we hit groomers until about 11, ate an early lunch, then hit the ungroomed areas until we left by 3-3:30PM. The little bit of settled pow to be found was northern exposures at high altitude like Alta.
Highlites of each hill:
Snowbasin: A Sun Valley resort without overnite accomodations, it's elegant, pricey and offers decent terrain for all levels of skiers/riders. OB areas were closed and unskiable. The fun stuff was hitting the gondy, Porcupine and Jean Paul lifts and taking the Tram to the top. There was enough trees, bumps, gullys and traverseables to keep it interesting. Snow ranged from fresh cord groomers in the AM, to crust and mank in the AM trees, to soft mashie bumps in the sun and chowder in the trees in the PM. Everything except boiler plate or fresh pow.
Pow Mou: If there ain't powder its just a mountain. Large, sprawling and relatively unchallenging steepwise inbounds. Snow country was closed and the cat ride wasn't worth taking even when available. More laid back and toned down facilitywise, kinda like Mt. Ellen, but I can see its advantages when it gets hit with fresh pow. Plans are in the works for further expansion there. Fun stuff was hitting the ungroomed trails/terrain surrounding Paradise lift in the AM, then Timberline and Hidden Lake lifts once the snow softened up.
Alta/Snowbird: One word: Majestic. A few thousand feet of elevation provided somewhat better snow conditions, but not much better. Skied the big bowls once they softened up, tree skiing was a little too sketchy conditions wise to make it worthwhile. We stopped off at the Peruvian to check out rates/accomodations for a future storm chasing trip next season.
Positives of trip: Hitting 4 hills on this trip instead of the planned 2. Not getting any rain. Getting in some good spring skiing, since no fresh snow was forthcoming.
Good food in Ogden. Bfast buffet at the Marriott was da bomb and provided ample choices to make a bag lunch for the mountain. Dinners ranged from 2 sushi nites, a greek nite with fat or haggard looking belly dancers, a group dinner at Rooster's Brewpub that the ski club subsidized only costing us $10 each, and me and Fred did mexican ceviche at Sonora Grille the last nite with margaritas, and one nite at the hotel bar. PBR pounders and Mickey Wide Mouth malt were the beer of choice buried in the snowbanks. A variety of brews were consumed at the pool and hot tub. City Club was the pre-dinner Caucasians bar to hit, and the bagpipers rocked on St. Pat's day.
Negatives: Riding a bus every morning to the mountain blows. And it really blows when the brakes fail and rearend a van on the way home. Fortunately, no one was hurt on our bus, or seriously hurt in the 2 other cars involved. It happened within 150 yards of the hotel, so we were able to abandon the bus, grab our gear and hike it to the Marriott.
Remembering to bring your "club member" card to the bar. That comes to an end in July.
No fresh pow or any good pow at all. Pretty much the reason UT skiing exists.
Pix to be posted later. Picked up a pair of Line Prophets 90's on sale the last day unmounted. Stoke for next season!
