guitar73

ski day #4 was hosted by snowbasin. after skiing it hard at the bird yesterday, we all decided that hitting the groomers of snowbasin was the way to go. we ate our hardy breakfasts and hit the road about 8am. stopped by a local ski shop to get our <barely> discounted lift tickets and then hopped on the highway north. hit very little traffic and was in the parking lot just a shade past 9 am. parking was fairly dense for a wednesday, so we didn't get an optimal spot. it didn't matter though, there were very short, if any, lift lines all day. as we were oggeling over the opulant bathrooms, jfskidan here tell that the strawberry area was holding the goods today. so we went up the needles gondola and worked our way over to strawberry. sun and cord for as far as the eye can see. a little wind transport as well helped to round things out. we laid the hammer down all the way to the strawberry gondola base. 2400 vert feet later we were at the top and the winds were howling fierce. we lapped strawberry all morning until my buddy rob fell ill and had to get a ski patrol ride back to the main base area. jfskidan and i met up with rob back at the main lodge, made sure he was ok, and then grabbed lunch. rob found a comfy couch to crash on and we went up the john paul lift to check out that area. jfskidan wanted to check out the downhill start areas, so we took the aerial tram up. we were headed for the women's start, which is a few hundred vert feet below the men's. a very sketchy narrow trail with hairpin switchbacks connects the two starts. it kinda reminded us of burma road, but with more serious consequences of wiping out. we pretty much stuck to the groomers in the john paul and needles area for the rest of the afternoon. the snow started out hard but softened up nicely. here is one pic from today...because internet is sucking right now. will upload more later.

we didn't hit up the tram. but there did not appear to be a long line when we first arrived. we pretty much just skiied mineral basin, little cloud, gadzoom, and gad 2 areas. didn't even touch the peruvian side at all. we got into mineral basin thru the tunnel. mineral basin has a lot of great stuff in there, but it was very crowded at the bottom. the sun hits it all day long...so i guess everyone wants to get some before it all turns to mashies. by the time we got out of the boundary bowl rob and i were totally shot. had just enough legs to take the groomers back to snowbird center.

here is a shot of our tracks at the end of the day. sweet.

so rob and i decided it would be a most excellent adventure to get some fresh turns in the untracked snowfields above Gad 2 lift. the boot pack didn't look too bad and we went for it. we told jfskidan it would only take us 30 mins to get where we wanted to go. wow, that hike was way more than either of us bargained for. we were so beat by the time we actually made it up to the top, about an hour after we started. so we finally get up to the top of the boot pack, then we gear up and take the traverse across the ridge line (which was another adventure in of itself). we skied past the temptation chutes and dropped into this wide open bowl and ended up at the intersection of bananas and tiger tail. snow was suprizingly good. a little crush on top that easily broke down to shin deep goodness. totally worth the harrowing trek to that spot. needless to say that was the last run of the day. we met up with jfskidan at the bottom of Gad 2 lift, took it up and then made our way back to Snowbird Center and had some apres at the lift fork.

there were a few hikers along the wildcat ridge....don't know what they were going to hit though. my buddy rob said that he was glad that we didn't start off the day on the wildcat chair; we might have spent most of our day there!

today was waaaay better than yesterday as far as surface conditions. visibility was at a premium. runs of the day were off the sugarloaf chair (east greeley) and the wildcat chair (anything there was bonkers).

same here...maybe a little cooler but not much. will do!

can't. our ski and stay package uses the Ski City Super Pass.

question: pow mow vs snowbasin. pro's and con's for each? which is better? the reason I ask is b/c I had written off snowbasin as an option for our non-cottonwoods ski day. thoughts?

good stuff! I really like both stowe and sugarbush. tinymoose was up there as well this weekend, but only skied Saturday b/c of the super cold temps. they opted for snowshoeing instead.

yeah, that's why I mentioned the jr boot/binding issue. we ran into that issue when tinymoose was looking at junior bindings (she's short and a lightweight). for the average sized person it shouldn't ever be a problem.

probably. tinymoose is headed up there this weekend with some girlfriends. gonna make sure she packs the extra layers, lol.

brrr....

yes, they will work with any downhill boot you buy. DIN sets the standard for downhill boot/binding connection. the only times you'll run into different (non-DIN) situations are for ski-touring (backcountry) setups, telemark skis, etc. true junior boots have a different DIN spec than for adult skis. re: boots? go to a reputable boot fitter and try on as many pairs of boots as you can find. get what fits your body, regardless of brand. this goes for used boots as well.

gonzo's is the area under the upper portion of the east mtn chair. I think I may have skied it once...maybe. just boat loads of cobbles and junk in there.

too bad that deal doesn't work on the weekend. smh....

we were out sunday morning. challenge glades still had decent coverage. bumps on t-bolt and exhibition started out firm but softened up nicely.

we're thinking about hitting up pow mow our first day (a sunday). especially if it snows.

16 days to UT !

you could be the exception. but the reality is finding a bootfitter that you can work with. one guy may be the world's best fitter, but not for everyone. lol. boot fitting is such an art, not a straight ahead science.

better sell a few more mausoleums...

wow....

smh....

they literally had two "closed" signs on the headwall

Spring skiing at its finest at Jackson Frost today. Too bad it's end of January. Rolled in about 8am got booted up after having some issues with my vouchers. Tinymoose didn't come since she is sick, so it was just me and our friend Wendy and her husband. Snow was very nice and edgeable everywhere. Bumps on exhibition were a bit firm but softened up later. Hit up east mtn for two laps. Floyd's was closed for racing, so river shot it was. At least Telstar was in play bc they only closed off at the top of floyds. Wendy and her dh left early, so I hit the bumps on t-bolt for a while. Called it a day at 12:45 and went in for brew and a steak. A bunch of college kids did a ski shot of fireball. They had good form.