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    Utah Weather

    Here are my take-aways as a Utah destination skier: 1) Avoid, at all costs, staying in the valleys (Salt Lake/Ogden/Provo) during the core winter season (December-February). It's stupid to risk spending your hard-earned winter vacation in smog when the whole point is to experience fresh air...
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    Alta, UT 12/9/2012

    Are you aware of the Ski Utah Gold and Silver passes, Evren? Sounds like you probably are, but $2700 for the all-14-resort Silver pass is still a pretty killer deal if you like to sample resorts throughout the season. Ski 60 days total and it's a paltry $45 per day. Sure, you could ski...
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    Vail buying Kirkwood?

    I couldn't find any relevant #'s online, so I'm merely speculating that a high majority of Tahoe skiers are "local" commuters. Reno doesn't have any direct flights from Europe (that I know of), and I doubt there are many East Coast/Texas skiers who would regularly schedule their Western ski...
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    Vail buying Kirkwood?

    The vast majority of Tahoe visitors are 'destination'. If it takes >3 hours to get somewhere then most people can only justify skiing via investing in a full weekend or week. In that case it's a full-on vacation and you want the luxury/convenience of a Northstar, the restaurants and varied...
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    Snowbasin, UT 3/18/11

    This whole argument is rather moot. When you factor everything in, LCC is rather overrated. Obviously they get more snow, the snow is generally high quality, and both areas have excellent terrain. But both areas are absolutely shredded within the first few opening hours after a storm...
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    200-inch base?

    Note that the true base #'s from OnTheSnow are the lower #'s (what they term as Lower Elevation). Still, Kirkwood has already exceeded a 200" base and several other Tahoe resorts will very likely go past 200" after the current storm series. It's been a great year for the Sierra, with deep...
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    Dodge Ridge, CA 3/11/2011

    Ya, you're right. Grizzly faces mostly north. It's the Polar Express intermediate terrain pod that faces west. Thanks for the correction. Grizzly holds good advanced terrain, but like I mentioned I haven't seen it opened before January (though my experience is limited to the last few...
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    Dodge Ridge, CA 3/11/2011

    Nice report, tseeb. Dodge Ridge is in that group of ski areas I would call the 'mid-majors' (since it's NCAA tourney time). Definitely not in the rank of the destination resorts, but big enough (832 acres) to provide interest with some unique advantages. Like you said it's the closest...
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    Powder Mountain cat skiing, UT 2/24/11

    Ya, I was probably off-base with an implication that it's not enough terrain. With Powder Mountain's refresh rate I would imagine that the cat operation would nearly always be able to find untracked with 3000 acres in play. The only exceptions would be when the northern Wasatch in general is...
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    Powder Mountain cat skiing, UT 2/24/11

    Nice report, Admin. Are there still plans to build out additional lifts and lodging at PowMow? I specifically wonder about this since a lot of times peripheral cat operations are a precursor to lift expansion. I would be curious to know the # of outings an operation like PowMow or the Alta...
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    Lake Tahoe STORM!

    Every report I saw just prior to the storm last weekend called for 3-5' of new snow - nobody had the audacity to forecast it would snow 12' in Kirkwood... The computer models can get a reasonable level of confidence of a coming storm 5 days to a week out, but even then the actual amounts can be...
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    Lake Tahoe STORM!

    Ya, Tahoe conditions are currently incredible. Friday was so deep that only the steepest runs were turnable - waist deep at minimum. For Saturday there was a few more feet of very, very light snow overnight that settled nicely on the consolidating previous 5+ feet. Sunday and Monday continued...
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    Advice on SLC

    The predicted small storms prior to this coming weekend seem unlikely to produce road conditions requiring 4WD up BCC/LCC. Snowbird was very empty yesterday (you could walk onto the tram nearly all-day) - if conditions continue to be sub-optimal the locals will not be skiing in force and...
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    Utah 1/28-1/30 TR

    Utah conditions are a little challenging, and look to be so for the foreseeable future. I'll post pics later if any come out well. Utah could really use a large storm cycle to build a soft base on top of the rain crust - the current and upcoming small storms sound like they won't be much more...
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    Serious Vert

    Then Alta would also have to be considered a mountain without 'serious vert' since Collins is also around 1800'. My point was that, to me, mountains fit into some general categories. It's not an absolute and it's not something that can be completely objectively quantified, but sustained...
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    Serious Vert

    To me there's a notable distinction between certain mountains and how they ski, when it comes to 'vertical'. Sustained pitches of a certain length make some mountains unique, ~2000' at 25+ degrees being a reasonable mark (regardless of if you can ski the full length on a single lift ride)...
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    Canyons Opening Day Delayed

    An apology from the Managing Director: http://thecanyons.com/MikeGoarLetter.pdf Looks like they're indeed 1-2 weeks behind schedule on construction and will offer 2 free day passes to season ticket holders.
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    Is the ski resort model dead?

    I don't think even this is universally an issue. Here in the Bay Area the Anymountain stores have an incredible trade-in program for kids. For $100 you get the first year's equipment (skis/boots). The equipment is used and comes from their rental fleet, but it's completely fine for kids...
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    Western Weather 2010-14

    The same system headed for Utah should be hitting the Sierra starting tomorrow evening. First substantial system of the year. I assume it will mean further resort/terrain openings for T-giving holiday, and the first decent riding conditions of the year for us. The storm will be cold with snow...
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    Should I Quit My Job and Move to Utah?

    If someone really cared about skiing they would be be packing up their bags, moving to Europe, and skinning up a glacier in Chamonix tomorrow (the true mecca of skiing). The rest of us are merely posers - finding the right balance in our lives between skiing and the rest of life's pursuits...
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