Utah Trip Report 2/15 through 2/22

[snoskier]

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.

[phillycore]

Looks GREAT!!

 

I got to get me there sometime....

[Erin808]

Looks great! I love Alta, it is hardcore.

[nick malozzi]

Looks sick man, nice job on the pics and TR. Try and get some action shots as the week goes on.

 

They have one of those magic carpet lift combos in Breck too. They are sweet, but it makes it really hard to hit on the good looking lifties. You just breeze by them too fast.

[toast21602]

looks great man. thanks for sharing the pics.

[ectobar]

Looks sick man, nice job on the pics and TR. Try and get some action shots as the week goes on.

 

They have one of those magic carpet lift combos in Breck too. They are sweet, but it makes it really hard to hit on the good looking lifties. You just breeze by them too fast.

 

Any idea where? I encountered a couple in vt, mt snow and okemo(i think) and they were pretty cool. I heard they were all over the place in breck but while I was there didnt see one.

[nick malozzi]

Any idea where? I encountered a couple in vt, mt snow and okemo(i think) and they were pretty cool. I heard they were all over the place in breck but while I was there didnt see one.

In all honesty I was pretty hungover at Breck, and just followed my buddies around not paying much attention to where we were. It was near a base area though. Sorry.

[kragan]

I will be there next Wednesday March 4th!!!!!!

[snoskier]

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.

[toast21602]

this is bullshit. its 55 here.

[snoskier]

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!!

 

 

 

this is bullshit. its 55 here.

 

 

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