Park City MR 3/4/2014

J

jojo_obrien

Member
Got to PR around 10:30 AM. Figured there wasnt much rush being first chair. My goal wasnt first chair, it was afternoon skiing. As soon as it started raining in the valley, I got in my car and drove up.

The base was VERY wet....it reminded me of spring skiing in SoCal...just absolute slush. The base temp was right around 36 deg F.

As I rode up, the snow began to fall. I was all over the place -- Silverlode, King Con, Thaynes, Bonanza, McConkeys......looking for the best lines. Many of the Silverlode/King Con runs were 3" on top of really firm subsurface that I just couldn't seem to get an edge on. Reminded me of the day I skied w/ the Alta Powder Posse at Deer Valley. You really had to be careful to not lose an edge.

McConkeys had some pretty decent lines -- 3-4" of new snow on top of a mogul-ly firm subsurface. I looked for the deepest spots that I could find where snow would accumulate. I was pretty content with what I found.

At around 1230 PM it started really coming down, so I went back to the car and changed my groomer skis for my pow skis and made my way over to Jupiter. I skied a few lines underneath the lift and was quite happy with what I found. Mostly untracked or minimally tracked. Still, I'd say it was about 5" of fresh on top of a firm subsurface. I skied the trees off of skiers right off of Jupiter lift and found some really nice sweet lines that required very little effort to ski. One of my favorite parts of Jupiter. At 245 I hiked up to Jupiter Peak and took a sweet line down that was essentially untracked. I'd say it was a solid 6" of fresh , as I was getting beautiful face shots all the way down. I was quite content.....I had never hiked up there before. Ridgetop winds of prob around 35 mph. Very manageable for storm riding.

Stayed over on McConkeys for a few runs and skied the trees off of skiers left. Great lines and the low angle stuff was really picking up some nice snow. I skied to 4 pm. The snow at the bottom was not nearly as high a quality -- the low elevation stuff really picked up some wet snow this time around. By the time the day ended it was bluebird - gorgeous views of the entire valley. Expecting tomorrow to be cloudless........

Very content with the day. Always love the high speed quads at Park City -- they really do allow a skier to rack up lots of vertical.
 
Jojo:

Thanks for the descriptions of the Jupiter system. I was there with friends last week, and since we didn't know the area, (and hadn't done any research before going - d'oh!), we probably missed the best runs. We sure had fun, though. I can't wait to go back. (We skied Jupiter on Monday, so we missed the fresh.)

And, as an Easterner, I really didn't understand the end of your third paragraph, lol! I skied six days, and never lost an edge once. And, for that matter, I demoed and rented the whole week, and discovered that you guys don't sharpen edges in Utah!

Seriously, though, thanks for the descriptions. If I had spent some time with satellite imagery or on this forum, we wouldn't have found ourselves in a narrow chute skier's left of the chair. Rhino, maybe?

Tom
 
pointpeninsula":29extzgv said:
And, as an Easterner, I really didn't understand the end of your third paragraph, lol! I skied six days, and never lost an edge once. And, for that matter, I demoed and rented the whole week, and discovered that you guys don't sharpen edges in Utah!
Click to expand...
Sure we do.....once, maybe twice a season.
 
Re the trail:

If I ponder Google maps with satellite view, I think it might have been pretty close to Scott's bowl. We skied under the chair for 30 yards or so, skied to the left, then followed a trail around to the right with boundary signs on our left. When we saw the hill that we'd need to climb, we chose to bear right to follow a well-worn traverse along the top of the bowl, and dropped into a reasonably clear area. The last section through the trees was really tight, but fairly short (maybe 20 turns or so?).

This narration is from memory, and I'd never been there before, so I'll defer to your judgement, but from the imagery, Portuguese Gap looks pretty open. A friend who skied Jupiter a few more times told me that had we kept traversing a bit more through some trees, we would have reached the bowl.

Hopefully I'll be back next year. I'm certainly returning at some point. You guys have a wonderful set of mountains, and the season pass is a great deal. Competition is a good thing. My molehill wants $745 for a season pass, which includes zip nada zilch extra goodies. The greedy b***ards. All that for two ways down a 1200 ft hill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top