Utah Reports

[volklyokel]

Spent the first day at Brighton. I only ran 14,000 feet today because I spent a lot of time de-tuning the Recons. Man, my shop in MD really put an unruly edge on these things. Very squirrely, almost like my feet were trying to do two things at once instead of acting as a steering unit. That's what I'm used to with the Volkl's. Not a good start to a week that I had hoped would be really sweet with a set of nationally sold-out skis. I'm certain it is merely a edge tune issue. I am taking them into a local Utah shop and asking them to reset the tune.

 

Conditions were pretty good, packed powder most everywhere on-piste and lots of tracking on the ungroomed runs. I started on the Milly side and ran some blues in order to begin to test-out these Recons. I worked my way over to the runs off the Crest lift, then to runs off the Snake Creek lift, ending the morning with a couple descents off the Great Western chair. I basically took it easy, trying to get used to the wideness and over-edginess of the Recons.

 

I've started a new photo gallery and shots will be posted daily, as time permits. Here is shot of a couple of boarders who were debating on heading right, into steep double black territory. Taken on the Great Western Trail.

 

 

More Monday night, after a visit to Deer Valley. Have a good weekend everyone. Keep it cold back there for me! Volklyokel

[ole2planker]

What a blue bird day! Thanks for posting the link to your trip photos.

 

Have fun.

Edited March 4, 2006 by ole2planker

[jveix33]

Deer Valley is a good mountain. If you get a chance head up to Snowbird. They have great bowls on the backside of the mountain. I hope your having a ton of fun on your trip.

[volklyokel]

Thanks for the replies! I'm going to Snowbird on Wednesday. Have a lift + tram ticket.

 

Keep an eye on this thread. I'm taking the weekend off to do family things, but Monday through Friday, in the coming week, I will be posting daily resort reports. A different resort every day. Volklyokel

[train36]

Sounds great, I am heading out there tomorrow, plane leaves at seven in the morning. I have never been out west so I can't wait to get out there hope we get some snow. I think we are going to try to make to a few different resorts, probably Park City, The Canyons, Brighton and Snowbird.

[jveix33]

Excellent I've skiied the canyons, deer valley, park city, and snowbird on one trip. Pretty decent conditions and the one day we got dumped with like 2 feet of powder. It was mad excellent. I hope your having a great time and train36 you have a great time! :rock

[volklyokel]

Second Utah ski day was spent at Deer Valley. Weather was cloudy all day long and we had little impulses of snow showers pass over on occasion. Forecast is for snow this week, especially on Tuesday night and Thursday.

 

I had a big day here recording more than 21,000 feet of vertical. I visited every summit and ran lots of runs that I hadn't run before. I detuned the outside edges on my Apache Recons and they're performing beautifully. I began the day up on Bald Mtn, running blues Keno and Nabob to warm up with and check the Recons. Then I stepped up to run steeper double blues, including Wizard, Tycoon and Stein's Way. After that I moved over to slopes on Flagstaff Mtn. working runs off the Red Cloud lift that I'd never been down before. Then I took the ride up the Silver Strike Express to the top and slipped over to the Empire Lodge for an early lunch (you get caught in mega lines if you wait to have lunch closer to noon).

 

After lunch, I rode up the Empire express and ran Supreme (blue), but the conditions up there were not as good as one would expect. I had wanted to make other runs off of Empire, but the crowds and sloppy conditions deterred me. Instead, I worked back across and ran a few runs on Bald Eagle Mtn. Notably Big Stick, which is one of my favorite drops at Deer Valley. It was a bit gloppy, but still lots of fun. Next time down was to work my way over to the lower Deer Crest area, where I'd never gone before. I worked my way all the way down to the bottom of the Jordanelle Gondola along US 40. It was very wet and slow there, but hardly anyone else was going that way, so I enjoyed taking my time and soaking in the views of Jordanelle Reservoir.

 

I've posted four photos from the gray day. Click the link in my opening post to see them. Here is a shot of someone heading down a blue run on Flagstaff Mtn (I think). More to come daily, this week, presuming the roads to the resorts aren't closed. Volklyokel

 

[correction] This was taken from the top of the Empire Express:

 

Edited March 14, 2006 by volklyokel

[sibhusky]

FYI, the factory bevel for the Recons is 1 and 1.

[volklyokel]

Today's resort was Snowbasin, north of Salt Lake City about 30 minutes. We were treated to a ten-inch powder day and everyone was seen with big smiles. I ate lunch at the John Paul Lodge at 11:30 and only five people were there. I guess no one even wanted to stop skiing to eat.

 

I began the day by being in the fourth gondola to go up on Needles Express. We quickly "raced" over to Strawberry Bowl, making first tracks along side of the groomed Main Street. The snow was not exactly "champaign powder" as this little dumping came from the south. Not as thick as concrete either; soft and with tinge of chunkiness. Just plain old fun. I made another run over in Strawberry before the masses really began to show up. Then I worked back over to work a mix of powder and groom in Middle Bowl and Porcupine Bowl, taking a lunch ride up on the John Paul chair and then a post-lunch run down the Wildflower Downhill.

 

Because of such a big day at Deer Valley, yesterday, and the fun of the powder, my legs faded early and I opted to call it a day at just under 13 thousand feet and 6 runs. Six runs doesn't sound like much, but at Snowbasin, we're talking upwards of 3000 foot drops for the longest runs.

 

Here's a photo to whet your appetite. This was early in the day before everyone discovered Strawberry Bowl. Go where you want! Enjoy! Tomorrow? An "easy" day at Alta? - Volklyokel

 

[Dan-]

Ill be out there in about 9-10 months.... Looks sick.

[volklyokel]

Fourth day of skiing out here with two more days to go. I opted to run Snowbird, today. It was a good choice for the morning, with about 8 inches of overnight powder on top of everything, and an additional 3 inches as the day wore on. The afternoon runs were trickier in that visibility really fell off, and, since it was my first Snowbird visit, ever, I took it carefully. I didn't rack up much vertical, at something less than 13,000 feet.

 

I started out in Gad Valley, riding both Gadzoom and the Mid-Gad lifts several times, running Big Emma (to warm up) and Backasswards. I did each of those a couple of times, until I took a run called Lunch Run, and caught a whiff of lunch cooking in the Mid-Gad Lodge. I stopped and refueled there. Then I popped down Bass Highway (and adjacent tree lanes) to catch the Tram at about noon.

 

The Tram line is a stitch: the locals are reasonably friendly and the group in front of me had some awesome deep snow gear. One guy had a pair of boards with waist widths that were wider than the shovel width of my own K2 Recons. That same group later (after running Mineral Basin) screamed down Peruvian valley doing jumps including some vertical inversions and 720 degree twists. Truly impressive!

 

Here is a shot of what it looks like in the tram with 124 other skiers/boarders. A real riot. Just glad that the ride is only about 8 minutes.

 

 

I've put about six other photos of Snowbird out on the photo web site (link in the first post). The powder was lighter and fluffier than the stuff I rode on yesterday at Snowbasin.

 

I will begin to make Snowbird and annual destination as I had lots of fun there and only scratched the surface of what can be done there. But beware. Do not link up with locals. You'll probably die.

 

Volklyokel

[snorovr]

Linkin up with the locals is the key out there. If you can keep up...

[Dan-]

Yeah bro. Linking up with locals is what you gotta do. They will show you the good stuff that the tourest's don't know about. Thats what i did in my trip to stowe, and i ended up riding Pow Pow chest deep.. Doesn't get any better.

[4 more wars]

truly jealous.

[volklyokel]

Fifth day. Next to last, was spent at Solitude. Nothing groomed. Again, we were treated to an additional 10-12 inches of powder. It was an awesome day, running down whatever/wherever you want (except in the closed avalanche-prone areas).

 

I started the morning in severe snow (tough visibility) on the Moonbeam lift running the greens and blues, just to warm up and get the powder legs in gear. I linked up with a nice couple who have never skied powder. They were quick to learn and we moved over to make runs off of the Sunrise lift before lunch. After lunch we headed up the Summit lift and worked our way down runs, Dynamite and Broadway, with a few excursions down unnamed, lesser tracked, parallel runs. Regrettably, I failed to make a trek down Honeycomb, which I'll bet, was just fantastic.

 

It was a totally incredible day. Here is a shot of me working some powder edges.

 

 

Alta tomorrow, then back to the balmy east coast on Saturday!

 

Volklyokel

[Papasteeze]

Excellent shots.. epic conditions! Congrats on doing the Safari thing. We know all those places, makes me want to move when it is 70 degrees at 6:30 in the morning here

[Papasteeze]

Excellent shots.. epic conditions! Congrats on doing the Safari thing. We know all those places, makes me want to move when it is 70 degrees at 6:30 in the morning here

[train36]

I just got back from Utah a little bit ago, what a great place. My first time out west amd we had good conditions with a lot of snow. The first day we hit the Canyons with 10 inches fresh and blue skies, I didn't think it could get much better, but it did.

 

The second day we went to Snowbird, they recieved a lot of snow a day ago and some fresh over night. Riding the tram up was different and led to some unreal terrain. Mineral Basin was amazing, I couldn't believe the size of the place.

 

Third day we went to Brighton which was my favorite place, no crowds and a lot of snow. They were getting snow all week long, plus eight fresh the night before and it snowed about five inches while we were there. White out conditions early but it cleared up by mid morning but stayed windy. This was the most snow I have boarded in, the trees were unreal.

 

Fourth Day we hit up Snowbasin which was a lot different than the other resorts. The place was wide open but kinda tracked out. We found some nice stuff though at the edge of the resort that was still fresh and fun. We had a nice warm sunny day, and I would love to go back to this place, it has to be awesome after a big storm.

 

Fifth day and final day of riding we went to Park City. The conditions sucked in the morning cold, windy, and cloudy. But it did feel nice to be back on some groomers. The park there ws real nice though and we played around in that for a while then watched the Mens Snowboard Superpipe Championships. The pipe was huge, 22 foot walls. I never saw anything like this before, they were going huge. I was right on the side of the pipe where they would make their first hit. We left after the first runs, not sure who won. The skier were going the next day.

 

The trip turned out better than I expected and I will definitley be traveling back to Utah next season, hopefully more than once.

[Dan-]

I just got back from Utah a little bit ago, what a great place. My first time out west amd we had good conditions with a lot of snow. The first day we hit the Canyons with 10 inches fresh and blue skies, I didn't think it could get much better, but it did.

 

The second day we went to Snowbird, they recieved a lot of snow a day ago and some fresh over night. Riding the tram up was different and led to some unreal terrain. Mineral Basin was amazing, I couldn't believe the size of the place.

 

Third day we went to Brighton which was my favorite place, no crowds and a lot of snow. They were getting snow all week long, plus eight fresh the night before and it snowed about five inches while we were there. White out conditions early but it cleared up by mid morning but stayed windy. This was the most snow I have boarded in, the trees were unreal.

 

Fourth Day we hit up Snowbasin which was a lot different than the other resorts. The place was wide open but kinda tracked out. We found some nice stuff though at the edge of the resort that was still fresh and fun. We had a nice warm sunny day, and I would love to go back to this place, it has to be awesome after a big storm.

 

Fifth day and final day of riding we went to Park City. The conditions sucked in the morning cold, windy, and cloudy. But it did feel nice to be back on some groomers. The park there ws real nice though and we played around in that for a while then watched the Mens Snowboard Superpipe Championships. The pipe was huge, 22 foot walls. I never saw anything like this before, they were going huge. I was right on the side of the pipe where they would make their first hit. We left after the first runs, not sure who won. The skier were going the next day.

 

The trip turned out better than I expected and I will definitley be traveling back to Utah next season, hopefully more than once.

 

Sounds like you had a great trip. But how can it feel nice to get back on groomers Pow Pow over groomers all day everyday.

[train36]

After 4 days of powder riding my legs were close to done, its a lot easier just to fly down a groomer. The powder is much better but not when it was tracked out and choppy, like it was at Park City that day. So riding some groomers wasn't that bad. If it would have dumped the night before I wouldn't have been on the groomers, I would have been up in Jupiters bowl or riding through the trees.

[volklyokel]

Train - my legs were mush too, after five consecutive days of skiing, three in powder. I thought it was just that I'm getting old. At Alta on Friday, I mostly rode groomers as the powder was mostly tracked out. I had first tracks on Rollercoaster, off the Sugarloaf lift. After several rides down runs off Sugraloaf, I made a run off the Supreme lift, had lunch at Alf's, then popped up Sugarloaf again to make a run down Collins Gulch. My plan was to ascend the Collins chair for one last run through Albion Basin, but when I saw the rope tow back to Albion Base, and I felt weakness in my legs, I opted for the tow rope shortcut, and called it a day early as the place was getting too crowded for my tastes.

 

Next year, I'll be sure to put a break-day between pairs of ski days.

 

Here's a Friday shot (3/10) of the Ballroom area at the top of Collins Gulch. Still good powder to be found. Volklyokel

 

[volklyokel]

Volkl,

 

It sounds like you had a great trip. What did you do on the two days that you were in Utah and didn't ski? I'm psyched to try out Snowbird Memorial day weekend weather permitting.

I have family in Utah, and opted to do "family things" with them. They don't ski (can you imagine?!? ) so we went bowling(!) one day, then took a trip out to Strawberry Reservoir to look around and get info on snowmobiling (for next year).

 

All in all, it was an awesome trip. The best powder I've ever had the pleasure to ski on. The days at Snowbasin, Snowbird and Solitude were the best. I plan to change my approach next year. Spend a couple of days at Snowbird, at least one day each at Snowbasin, Brighton and Solitude. I'll skip the Park City resorts and I've seen enough of Alta to last a while. The only thing I regret about this whole season is that I didn't reach 300,000 vert feet.

 

Volkl