4 days, 18 people, 4 ski resorts, good food, good beer, mindblowing movies and great snow. Perfect trip. I'll post pics later if I end up with any good ones.
Friday - took advantage of QuickStart at Park City. Parked downtown to take advantage of the Town Lift (seems like more people should take advantage of the Town Lift - it's hugely convenient). The upper mountain (Jupiter, McConkey's and Pioneer) was closed all day due to wind. In the morning only the lower lifts were open, but 8+" untracked was available for the taking off the ridges. Later on the mid-mountain lifts opened and we spent the afternoon on relatively untracked snow off of Thaynes/Motherlode. Interestingly, some of the softest conditions were on the return to Town lift (just doesn't get much traffic). Snow in general was relatively heavy and in some places wind-affected, but turns were excellent given this was my day for boarding. Some of the groomed runs were bumped out and choppy - termed as 'California snow' by some in the group who are not powder-oriented.
Saturday - Solitude. 18 inches overnight. Very crowded for Solitude (parking lot full and 10 minute liftlines). Hit Supreme on rope drop in the afternoon - a couple of exceptional knee-deep runs before retreating to the Black Forest for more uncut. In the morning Powderhorn provided multiple fresh lines. Ran into many local backcountry tele-skiers on the lifts - they had confined themselves to resort skiing due to the dangerous snowpack. Untracked didn't last long - by closing everything was cut up (note that Honeycomb didn't open all day).
Sunday - Snowbasin. Best day for untracked. Only reported 5" overnight, but many spots were much deeper. We got on the second Olympic tram - Men's downhill held completely untracked snow (at least knee-deep). Simply awesome turns. Most of the mountain was open (except for the upper, hike-to open bowls, Noname and far skier's right off of Strawberry). A mountain guide made several suggestions that yielded great turns - first, the slow lifts (Porky's and Middle) held great snow late into the day as few use the runs directly accessible from these underused lifts (think Porky's face, 119, etc.). Second, he informed us to hit the Diamond bowl, which was also great (took us 2 trips to locate it). Visibility was near-zero on the upper mountain - another good reason to stick to the lower, slow chairs. We basically had untracked all day - though by the end of the day you would have to bushwack through the scrub to get at it.
Monday - nearly exhausted but we headed to Snowbird (and were glad we did). Very crowded in the morning (30 minute tram line, 15 minute lift lines) - Mineral Basin was closed and the hungry locals were out in force. Parts of Cirque traverse still quite rocky. Was able to get untracked in Upper Cirque (though had several rock hits) and the apron was sublime (barely cut-up and deep). The steepness of Snowbird was jolting given the relatively benign steeps at the previous 3 resorts. Supposedly Mineral opened in the late afternoon (we had to leave early to catch flights). We were able to watch some of the Masters of Snowboarding competition - there were some gnarly boarders out there...
One woman in our group had just skiied Hokkaido the week before (and we also met up with a Hokkaido local on the slopes). I asked how the Utah snow compared - they found it similar though generally lighter in Japan (I did tell them conditions do get lighter in Utah during the colder storms).
My overall impression is that Snowbasin is tough to beat for untracked if snow conditions are right. It felt 1/3rd as crowded as Snowbird, even though we skiied Snowbasin on a weekend and Snowbird on Monday. Also, most of the mountain was open when the other 3 resorts had large amounts of closed terrain.
The Wasatch still could use another few feet of base - rocks and scrub were evident in certain, isolated spots at Snowbird as well as Snowbasin (which normally eventually get filled in). But they're definitely setup well for the remaining season.
Don't let anyone tell you the food/beer is not good in Utah. Easy Street Brasserie in Park City had great food and a fun bar downstairs. Martine in downtown SLC had above-average tapas. And the beer was great at Roosters in Ogden and Squatters. Note we always bring hard liquor in our luggage so we don't need to mess with the state liquor stores...
BTW we were able to get everywhere we skiied with 2WD rental cars. Try that when it snows 18" in the Sierra...
Thanks to everybody on this board for great suggestions which really helped us out. We'll be back in March!
Friday - took advantage of QuickStart at Park City. Parked downtown to take advantage of the Town Lift (seems like more people should take advantage of the Town Lift - it's hugely convenient). The upper mountain (Jupiter, McConkey's and Pioneer) was closed all day due to wind. In the morning only the lower lifts were open, but 8+" untracked was available for the taking off the ridges. Later on the mid-mountain lifts opened and we spent the afternoon on relatively untracked snow off of Thaynes/Motherlode. Interestingly, some of the softest conditions were on the return to Town lift (just doesn't get much traffic). Snow in general was relatively heavy and in some places wind-affected, but turns were excellent given this was my day for boarding. Some of the groomed runs were bumped out and choppy - termed as 'California snow' by some in the group who are not powder-oriented.
Saturday - Solitude. 18 inches overnight. Very crowded for Solitude (parking lot full and 10 minute liftlines). Hit Supreme on rope drop in the afternoon - a couple of exceptional knee-deep runs before retreating to the Black Forest for more uncut. In the morning Powderhorn provided multiple fresh lines. Ran into many local backcountry tele-skiers on the lifts - they had confined themselves to resort skiing due to the dangerous snowpack. Untracked didn't last long - by closing everything was cut up (note that Honeycomb didn't open all day).
Sunday - Snowbasin. Best day for untracked. Only reported 5" overnight, but many spots were much deeper. We got on the second Olympic tram - Men's downhill held completely untracked snow (at least knee-deep). Simply awesome turns. Most of the mountain was open (except for the upper, hike-to open bowls, Noname and far skier's right off of Strawberry). A mountain guide made several suggestions that yielded great turns - first, the slow lifts (Porky's and Middle) held great snow late into the day as few use the runs directly accessible from these underused lifts (think Porky's face, 119, etc.). Second, he informed us to hit the Diamond bowl, which was also great (took us 2 trips to locate it). Visibility was near-zero on the upper mountain - another good reason to stick to the lower, slow chairs. We basically had untracked all day - though by the end of the day you would have to bushwack through the scrub to get at it.
Monday - nearly exhausted but we headed to Snowbird (and were glad we did). Very crowded in the morning (30 minute tram line, 15 minute lift lines) - Mineral Basin was closed and the hungry locals were out in force. Parts of Cirque traverse still quite rocky. Was able to get untracked in Upper Cirque (though had several rock hits) and the apron was sublime (barely cut-up and deep). The steepness of Snowbird was jolting given the relatively benign steeps at the previous 3 resorts. Supposedly Mineral opened in the late afternoon (we had to leave early to catch flights). We were able to watch some of the Masters of Snowboarding competition - there were some gnarly boarders out there...
One woman in our group had just skiied Hokkaido the week before (and we also met up with a Hokkaido local on the slopes). I asked how the Utah snow compared - they found it similar though generally lighter in Japan (I did tell them conditions do get lighter in Utah during the colder storms).
My overall impression is that Snowbasin is tough to beat for untracked if snow conditions are right. It felt 1/3rd as crowded as Snowbird, even though we skiied Snowbasin on a weekend and Snowbird on Monday. Also, most of the mountain was open when the other 3 resorts had large amounts of closed terrain.
The Wasatch still could use another few feet of base - rocks and scrub were evident in certain, isolated spots at Snowbird as well as Snowbasin (which normally eventually get filled in). But they're definitely setup well for the remaining season.
Don't let anyone tell you the food/beer is not good in Utah. Easy Street Brasserie in Park City had great food and a fun bar downstairs. Martine in downtown SLC had above-average tapas. And the beer was great at Roosters in Ogden and Squatters. Note we always bring hard liquor in our luggage so we don't need to mess with the state liquor stores...
BTW we were able to get everywhere we skiied with 2WD rental cars. Try that when it snows 18" in the Sierra...
Thanks to everybody on this board for great suggestions which really helped us out. We'll be back in March!
