Utah on a spring break

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

2 minutes ago, saltyant said:

Nope, maybe I'll go there

It’s somewhere you can drive to...I was there in the summer of 2002 after my one year stint at Merrill Lynch.  That summer I went to Rutland and skied at killington, stayed about five nights in Burlington VT with friends who graduated m a year later than me, traversed northern New England with stops in the northeast kingdom and white mountains..and made my way up the Maine coastline from Kittery to Bar Harbor before settling in a $150 a night hotel room in Saco maine adjacent to old orchard beach before a return journey to Stowe, Burlington and Allentown before I went to Bozeman MT

Edited April 2, 2021 by GrilledSteezeSandwich

[saltyant]

3 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

It’s somewhere you can drive to...I was there in the summer of 2002. 

That's where I was gonna go last year but Maine was making people jump thru hoops to enter their realm, so I went to New Yawk instead. 

[toast21602]

1 minute ago, saltyant said:

That's where I was gonna go last year but Maine was making people jump thru hoops to enter their realm, so I went to New Yawk instead. 

Just get vaccinated and it will make things easier. 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

1 minute ago, toast21602 said:

Just get vaccinated and it will make things easier. 

Oh I’m sure he’ll sign up soon when it becomes available to everybody.  

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

4 minutes ago, saltyant said:

That's where I was gonna go last year but Maine was making people jump thru hoops to enter their realm, so I went to New Yawk instead. 

This summer maine will be different or maybe go to Florida I believe Everglades National Park is there and you’ll see people who look like @Benm on the party day. 

[saltyant]

Just now, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

This summer maine will be different or maybe go to Florida I believe Everglades National Park is there and you’ll see people who look like @Benm on the party day. 

I would never to go Florida in the summer again, only in winter. Florida's too flat for me, I prefer the mountains.

[toast21602]

Florida sucks.

[toast21602]

Just now, toast21602 said:

Florida sucks.

kayaking through the Everglades NP is cool, though. 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

2 minutes ago, saltyant said:

I would never to go Florida in the summer again, only in winter. Florida's too flat for me, I prefer the mountains.

I haven’t been to Florida since thanksgiving of 1996.  My parents went with my sisters family a couple years ago and gave me $2,000 not to come lol.  They like to be fair so since they paid for my sisters family and I passed they felt it necessary to even things out.  Fucking boomers lol

Edited April 2, 2021 by GrilledSteezeSandwich

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

1 minute ago, toast21602 said:

Florida sucks.

Root likes it there.  

[saltyant]

3 minutes ago, toast21602 said:

Florida sucks.

It's nice to go to Florida for a few days in the winter. As much as I love skiing, I also enjoy warm weather (70 to 80 degrees). But I would never want to live there permanently, would definitely choose a western state like Wyoming or Colarada

Edited April 2, 2021 by saltyant

[toast21602]

3 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Root likes it there.  

who?

[toast21602]

2 minutes ago, saltyant said:

It's nice to go to Florida for a few days in the winter. As much as I love skiing, I also enjoy warm weather (70 to 80 degrees). But I would never want to live there permanently, would definitely choose a western state like Wyoming or Colarada

Agree with that. 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

9 minutes ago, toast21602 said:

who?

He last post January 1st...

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

11 minutes ago, saltyant said:

It's nice to go to Florida for a few days in the winter. As much as I love skiing, I also enjoy warm weather (70 to 80 degrees). But I would never want to live there permanently, would definitely choose a western state like Wyoming or Colarada

You can just turn the heat up to 70. Wham bam thank you ma’am wahahahah.  Florida is good for a seafood lover like you.  I bet you ate some mahi mahi while sitting on the dock of the bay 

[eaf]

@saltyant, you need another hobby for the summer time. And since you are a fan of Florida, why not get some instructions and go dive wrecks in the Keys? I’ll be your buddy 👌🏻

[eaf]

Now that I'm back, I'd like to close this thread...

First, thanks to all who've been there earlier this year and posted their TRs. It should be pretty obvious that I was often following their tracks, and it saved me a lot of time on research. The choice of SLC hotels, easy hikes to kill time, advice on good trails and lifts, that was all extremely helpful.

We've skied 3 days total (there was a fourth day planned at Snowbasin, but then we had to rebook the flights and cut the trip short). The choice of mountains was primarily driven by their elevation (this is a late trip, so the higher the better) and price (we have no season passes and paying $200 per day at DV is absurd).

The original plan was to split the stay between condos at Solitude and Crystal Inn in downtown. Hearing how a PITA it can be to drive up the canyon after a fresh snowfall, regardless of the vehicle, just based on the number of people that suddenly get hit by the overpowering desire to ski no matter what, it seemed logical to avoid daily trips from SLC to Brighton/Solitude and just stay on the mountain. Well, there were no snowfalls while we were there, no driving issues, no crowds (yay for the beautiful sunny weather), and yet I feel that staying at condo was so much worth it and better than what we then saw at SLC, even despite the 3x price tag. It's not only obviously convenient to just walk out the building and get on the snow, then go back for a lunch and then for a stroll at the end of the day, it's just a different feeling and mood when you don't have to park in the crowd, boot in the crowd, then pack the car and snake back to SLC at end of the day in a long line of departing vehicles. Instead you live at where you ski and that makes you feel at home rather than being a regular day tripper.

I do have to say that these condos are freaking expensive and same kind of experience can be had for half the price with breakfasts and dinners included in Italy, but whatever. The whole ski industry here is expensive.

IDK whether the weather was out of the ordinary this week or it's always more or less the same in late March, but conditions were top notch. Blue skies, warm sun, snow is everywhere and while the trees and everything outside the trails were not inviting due to frozen crust, the groomers were immaculate and end of the season thin crowds made them so much fun to ski - fast like a bullet, straight to the lift, in a never ending loop.

I'd say you start to get bored of Solitude by the end of the second day because it's not too big, and there are only so many ways to ski it top to bottom, but then you kind of miss it the day after.

I've already talked about our impression of Brighton, it's certainly a much larger, diverse and entertaining mountain, but I feel that it has to be skied in the precise order of covering the center as early as possible while kids haven't arrived yet, then explore the Western side, then have a lunch on the terrace at the bottom of Milly Express and spend the remaining time at the Milly side until it closes at 4pm. This should help avoiding long lines, pizzas and reckless teens. Agree or disagree, but if I'm ever back there, that's going to be my plan.

I don't know what to think of SLC downtown. We didn't particularly plan our time there, and on two days (Sunday early afternoon and Wednesday night) we found the downtown to be devoid of life, with hardly any people, empty trams, just rare cars traveling on the rectangular grid of 3-4 lane one way streets. Yeah, there are cafes, bars and eateries, but sometimes you are not even allowed to stay in the cafe after ordering and get ejected right back into the empty streets, so overall it was quite a disappointment. It seems like a very boring place, and the views of the city from the Ensign peak would be just as boring were it not for the surrounding mountains and Farmington Bay. On the other hand, in the morning of the last day we caught quite the opposite mood on Main street and really wanted to spend a couple of hours just walking around, too bad we were pressed by the departing flight.

So there, it was a very enjoyable skiing trip, I wouldn't mind repeating it just the same and at about the same time, i.e. end of March next year, but I figure I'll wait with this decision until I hear more about Salty's next year adventures on his newly bought Epic pass and then, who knows, I will shamelessly copycat it again.

[Justo8484]

9 minutes ago, eaf said:

we found the downtown to be devoid of life, with hardly any people, empty trams, just rare cars traveling on the rectangular grid of 3-4 lane one way streets. Yeah, there are cafes, bars and eateries, but sometimes you are not even allowed to stay in the cafe after ordering and get ejected right back into the empty streets, so overall it was quite a disappointment. It seems like a very boring place

you're aware that we're still in the middle of a global pandemic with all sorts of restrictions in place, right?

[eaf]

6 minutes ago, Justo8484 said:

you're aware that we're still in the middle of a global pandemic with all sorts of restrictions in place, right?

Yup. As a reminder, got denied of my hard earned priority boarding yesterday, and was cattled in row by row to 100% capacity.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

34 minutes ago, eaf said:

Yup. As a reminder, got denied of my hard earned priority boarding yesterday, and was cattled in row by row to 100% capacity.

Which airline?

[Justo8484]

58 minutes ago, eaf said:

Yup. As a reminder, got denied of my hard earned priority boarding yesterday, and was cattled in row by row to 100% capacity.

cool, i didn't know the social scene in downtown SLC had anything to do with the way airlines were handling this. one of many reasons i'm choosing not to fly right now.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

1 hour ago, Justo8484 said:

you're aware that we're still in the middle of a global pandemic with all sorts of restrictions in place, right?

Eaf is such a fool...he doesn’t understand why everybody was wearing masks this season at Blue.  

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

9 minutes ago, Justo8484 said:

cool, i didn't know the social scene in downtown SLC had anything to do with the way airlines were handling this. one of many reasons i'm choosing not to fly right now.

You won’t fly masked and fully vaccinated?  

[eaf]

34 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Which airline?

United.

[eaf]

2 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Eaf is such a fool...he doesn’t understand why everybody was wearing masks this season at Blue.  

Show me where I said so.