NeedhamSkier
New member
So after much deliberation (which many of you have been witness to) Snowbasin was the eventual choice for today. I arrived early, as the drive up from SLC was hassle-free and I definitely did not want to miss first chair, having flown across the country for this storm. Had to wait until ticket office opened at 8.30 to buy a ticket and jumped in line for the gondola. Lines were not too bad – I was probably on the 10th gondola, joining the line at 8.40. But by 9, it was a full maze and then some. A lot of people were raving about how good Saturday was – poor visibility and some wind, but constant refills all afternoon. Weather on Sunday was bluebird – no wind and didn’t feel cold at all.
Figured I would do the obvious on the first run and took some variation of Main St, with knee deep fluff all the way down. This was what I had come for!
I didn’t realize Strawberry was still closed, but they opened it about 5 minutes after I got there (luckily, otherwise I would have been stuck there until it opened, which somebody said can be as late as 10-10.15 some days) I was again in one of the early gondolas and off to the races. The top of Main St was just awesome.
Then I tried to get clever. I should just have carried on down one of the blue trails as there was still plenty of untracked options. Instead I followed a group left and ended up tracking down somewhere around Gun Tower (I think). Still powder, but in the trees and took me a while to find my way.
After one more run, headed back to JP to avoid the crowds on Strawberry. By now, the obvious lines were pretty much tracked out, but by zigging when others zagged, I found some nice turns on Philpot Ridge.
Second time on JP, it looked like they had just opened the No Name gates. The line for the tram was long, so I traversed over to one of the lower gates for some more great turns. A good few people had been through before I got there, so it wasn’t completely untracked, but it was deep and you could definitely find your lines in between others and by traversing out a bit further.
By then it was 12.15 and this East Coast boy was needing a break. So lunch was in order. Can we talk about those lodges (again)? Carpet, real silverware and great food – it’s such a luxe experience.
By this time, I was feeling that I had already got a lot of skiing done and much of the obvious powder was gone, at least for those with less familiarity like me. (I missed the opening of Sisters, which must have been late morning) So, given all those factors, I decided to take a lesson. Sounds crazy on a powder day, but since it was getting tough to find the powder, I figured I would either luck out and the instructor will lead me to some secret stashes, or I can ask for some help with powder technique, and practice in the left-overs. In the end, it was the latter, which confirmed my thought that most of the easily accessible powder had been tapped. There were only two of us in the group and we lucked out with a great instructor. (He had been a competitive ski-jumper which added an interesting twist to things.) We worked on some fundamentals and he gave me 3 or 4 really useful things to work on. I like to take a lesson once a year or so and almost always find it useful. Also, for advanced skiers, the lessons are almost always small (particularly in the afternoon), and the instructors seem to enjoy doing some more advanced coaching.
Snowbasin delivered in every sense – 18” of snow on a bluebird day, with some great terrain to explore. The locals were complaining, but the crowds were very manageable, given my East Coast viewpoint. Great day and I’ll definitely be back some time.
(No action pics, since I was by myself, and I may have got some of the trail names wrong - I'm working from memory looking at the trail map now)
Figured I would do the obvious on the first run and took some variation of Main St, with knee deep fluff all the way down. This was what I had come for!
I didn’t realize Strawberry was still closed, but they opened it about 5 minutes after I got there (luckily, otherwise I would have been stuck there until it opened, which somebody said can be as late as 10-10.15 some days) I was again in one of the early gondolas and off to the races. The top of Main St was just awesome.
Then I tried to get clever. I should just have carried on down one of the blue trails as there was still plenty of untracked options. Instead I followed a group left and ended up tracking down somewhere around Gun Tower (I think). Still powder, but in the trees and took me a while to find my way.
After one more run, headed back to JP to avoid the crowds on Strawberry. By now, the obvious lines were pretty much tracked out, but by zigging when others zagged, I found some nice turns on Philpot Ridge.
Second time on JP, it looked like they had just opened the No Name gates. The line for the tram was long, so I traversed over to one of the lower gates for some more great turns. A good few people had been through before I got there, so it wasn’t completely untracked, but it was deep and you could definitely find your lines in between others and by traversing out a bit further.
By then it was 12.15 and this East Coast boy was needing a break. So lunch was in order. Can we talk about those lodges (again)? Carpet, real silverware and great food – it’s such a luxe experience.
By this time, I was feeling that I had already got a lot of skiing done and much of the obvious powder was gone, at least for those with less familiarity like me. (I missed the opening of Sisters, which must have been late morning) So, given all those factors, I decided to take a lesson. Sounds crazy on a powder day, but since it was getting tough to find the powder, I figured I would either luck out and the instructor will lead me to some secret stashes, or I can ask for some help with powder technique, and practice in the left-overs. In the end, it was the latter, which confirmed my thought that most of the easily accessible powder had been tapped. There were only two of us in the group and we lucked out with a great instructor. (He had been a competitive ski-jumper which added an interesting twist to things.) We worked on some fundamentals and he gave me 3 or 4 really useful things to work on. I like to take a lesson once a year or so and almost always find it useful. Also, for advanced skiers, the lessons are almost always small (particularly in the afternoon), and the instructors seem to enjoy doing some more advanced coaching.
Snowbasin delivered in every sense – 18” of snow on a bluebird day, with some great terrain to explore. The locals were complaining, but the crowds were very manageable, given my East Coast viewpoint. Great day and I’ll definitely be back some time.
(No action pics, since I was by myself, and I may have got some of the trail names wrong - I'm working from memory looking at the trail map now)
