Utah Trip report

[Timeless]

Hi All

 

just checking in from SLC after the first day of my trip, at Brighton.

 

They had some new snow this week and cold temps and the conditions were great, loose powder on the trails that had been groomed and untouched powder 12+" on many of the ungroomed areas and in the trees.

 

I've never spent so much time riding in the trees, it was awesome, and the runs down off of elk park ridge were all phenomenal, although some must have been pretty sketchy before this snowfall 'cos there was a lot of stuff poking through the surface powder.

 

Anyone planning a trip out here should think very carefully about resort choice. PC and Canyons are closing runs all over the place and there's nothing in the forecast to make this better, but the LCC,BCC resorts have a very good base and are 100%. This is a real shame because I was very keen to get back to PC on this trip but it doesn't look worth the trip.

 

Solitude tomorrow, Snowbird Sunday, probably back to Brighton on Monday.

 

Have a fun weekend all

[Timeless]

i leave tommorrow.

the school is staying at PC and Canyons, but o well, its still out west. i think we may be going to brigthon too

 

If you can get to Brighton, you really should, but I'm sure you'll have a blast at PC anyway especially if you ride park.

[Timeless]

So I'm back in Sunny PA, all the snow has gone and I'm completely wiped out by 4 great days in Utah.

 

I didn't manage to post much while I was there but here's a summary of the trip:

 

Day one (Friday), cold and overcast with light snow, fresh powder and tons of great tree skiing (riding), I nearly impaled myself a few times but it was such a good time, I really think Brighton may be my favourite place in the universe.

 

Day 2: Solitude, bright sunshine and groomers, with some soft but used snow off the sides which was tough in the morning (when the groomers were best) but rideable in the afternoon once the groomers got sticky, did tons of runs in the main bowl area, best runs were Diamond Lane and the areas off trail around serenity, grumble, stumble etc, worst area was off of the sunshine lift where a blue run called sensation kicked the butts of the two "expert" skiers I was with (it was bumped up really bad with sticks and rocks poking through all over it. A great day with beautiful weather and goggle tans all round.

 

Day 3: Snowbird, my first time here and I was a little apprehensive but we took the tram to the top and decided to "warm up" on Chip's run which was a piece of icy sh!t, cat track, footpath from hell. Less then half the way down I was ready to go home and decided to jump off of the side onto one of the blacks (silver fox) which was so much nicer, so that set the tone for the day. The blues and greens at Snowbird are really crappy (with one or two exceptions like bananas and bits of bassackwards) but the steeper stuff is awesome. We spent most of the day runing laps in the Gad valley area, on (and off the sides of) Regulator Johnson, Shireen and Last Choice, this area up there above the tree line was just 'kin amazing, the conditions were fantastic with bumpy but carve-able 3 day old snow and sunshine, the traverses up there are a bit sketchy (thin) but as the whole bowl was rideable this really didn't matter 'cos you could drop off just about anywhere. We did a couple of runs in mineral basin aswell which was in pretty good shape but a little scraped off on one side and slow and slushy on the other, another great day and snowbird goes very firmly to the second spot in my favourites list.

 

Day 4: only half a day (9-1pm) with a plane to catch in the PM but they picked up a couple of inches of fresh snow so we headed back to Brighton. Beautiful blue skies and patches of powder blown around by the wind. The trees were much harder work because the snow under the light new coating was hard and crusty but the groomed runs were in great shape and the odd patches of untouched powder were fun. It was noticeable that the base was nothing like as deep as last year (a week later) because some the runs had all sorts of stuff showing through (like aspen glow, was awesome last year but almost unrideable this time). Did lots of mellow runs down the middle and quite a few off of elk park ridge, then headed over to Millicent which was not in too good shape so we did 2 runs then skipped back over to the middle again. Not sure if it's the trees but the snow at Brighton seems to stay in better shape during the spring than either Solitude or Snowbird, by the time we quit (1pm) it was warm and sunny and the conditions were still fantastic, a great way to finish the trip.