Snowbird, UT March 7-10, 2026

[tseeb]

Saturday, March 7
I’d spent the night in Rexburg, UT with my oldest first cousin who moved there about 5 years ago from Southern Washington state. I'd thought about going to Grand Targhee, a hour away, but they'd only received 6" new snow on Friday on top of 5" Thursday and it would have cost me $125 and left me with a 4 1/2 to 5 hr drive after skiing. According to OpenSnow. they also reported 2" new on Sunday and I had snow between Rexburg and Idaho Falls, but it was not sticking to the road at 34F. Instead, I drove 4 hrs plus a 15 minute Costco gas stop in S. Ogden where I made a sandwich with leftover brisket, BBQ sauce and $4! bagel I'd bought at Big Sky Town Center bakery to Snowbird where OpenSnow reported 4" Thu/17" Fri and 13" Sat. (I added more sauce as I ate it.)

I scored great parking and skied from 155 until almost 430. I started with a couple of laps on Wilbere finding new snow mostly skied out and even scraped off in a couple of places. I moved to Peruvian for a lap as line there had gone down and somebody had told me trees just past the tram held some powder. I must have gone too far as I mostly ended up skiing Mach Schnell. Line had grown at Peruvian but had gone down at Gadzoom so I rode it and Little Cloud and took two laps on Mineral Basin. First I skied chopped up powder starting on White Diamonds and ending on Lone star, then went into Bookends Bowl finding a little chopped up powder with room for tracks that 96-width Salomons handled better than last time I was there in similar width but softer DPS skis. On Little Cloud.

I loaded Mineral after 3:30 and skied main Little Cloud Run and rode lift before it closed. I looked into highest Cirque but did not try it. My Garmin says I did enter Upper Cirque and crossed over and I skied some powder between Great Scott and Upper Silver Fox. I had time for more Wilbere laps and took two finding a very little powder along edge before skiing to across road from my SUV before 430.

Then I had a 1 min drive to Iron Blosam. My Garmin recordings and sunset over SLC from Iron Blosam. Did not see much Alpenglow on mountain. Thanks to Liz for noticing this colorful sky.

 

[kingslug]

And now..most of ithas turned to glop..
Got very warm today...
Fred's trees...

 

[EMSC]

I'm still trying to figure out why former Admin likes puke green helmets. But great to see his visage on the boards.

If I had not not had my MI a few months ago I would be heading over to Utah ~tomorrow for my annual guys trip. Interestingly also the same week that Tseeb and Tony/Liz are there as well. I had thought about just driving over to spend time with the group in the evenings, but decided it was just too far of a drive to mostly sit around; plus my rehab 3x/week is just too important to regaining cardio function - so that I can simply ski with them by next season (crosses fingers, knocks on wood).

 

[jimk]

9 March 2026 Snowbird, I caught up with @tseeb today.
Here he is scoping out the Cirque:

Heading out to the Rasta Chutes area.

Rasta sequence

Rasta spray

One of the tighter chutes in the Rasta area of Little Cloud Bowl.

He snapped a shot of me.

The day was not complete without a beer tasting.

Late in the afternoon I took this photo of the interior of a nearly empty The Nest, it's the new restaurant at the mid-Gad location. Beautiful huge windows with great views:

We attended a 4:30 PM Thanksgiving end of the day ski ritual at the top of the Wilbere Chair.

 

[tseeb]

Sorry but I'm not keeping up. Will post a few photos and words but don't have time for a complete writeup.

Sunday, March 8, 2026 I wondered why so many cars were pulling into Snowbird at 730 AM, almost a continuos line of them, before Tony Crocker reminded me it was Sunday, not Monday/. I did not get out until 10 AM MDT and went over hill to Mineral Bassin which already had a big line. Mineral line at left, Baldy at right.

I rode Baldy and asked attendant at top how much it would cost me to join Tony, Liz, Marc Guido and others at Alta for the day. $227. Nope.
This is line and hikers to right of chair when they opened Devil's Castle at Alta.

I rode and skied Baldy until Mineral line went down at noon. On return, I took highest traverse allowed across Baldy Peak which included a 100' climb. I followed two dads with a 8 and 10-year to make sure I went down a safe line. I found a little untracked along edge and below route. I went into Iron Blosam and fixed lunch then returned and rode Mid-Gad as Gadzoom line was long. I almost fell asleep a couple of times on chair. I then skied Gad 2 a few times finding good very steep winter snow with a little powder. Once I dropped in under chair and crashed a couple time in steeps. After my Gad 2 laps I skied a mid-Cirque to base and rode Peruvian and entered tunnel just ahead of sweep.

I missed steep chute I'd done earlier and also missed getting all the way out Cirque to Wilma's, instead dropping down under Tram. I did get into Green Forsest and found some steep chopped powder. Looking up Green Forest.

Looking across and down Green Forest

Garmins of my day, Many laps on Baldy waiting for Mineral Basin line to go down.

 

[tseeb]

Monday, March 9, 2026 I again did not start until about 10 AM MDT. Again, I moved to Mineral Basin side but found line on that chair almost as long as on Sunday. I rode Baldy a few times before waiting in a 10-minute singles line after 11 on Mineral. I met up with @jimk and Al/wasatchman and two of Jim's Virginia friends inside lodge at top of Tram and re-hydrated. We did a mid-Cirque run and then I rode Wilbere and skied to Iron Blosam for lunch. My break must have been too long as Garmin closed one session and started another.

After lunch I rode Gadzoom and Little Cloud and found excellent steep winter snow with some wind sift on top by going out Road to Prove then further traversing on what sign said was Lizard's Trail past Hoop's. I ran into Jim and the father and son from Virginia at Little Cloud and we repeated what I found. Some photos of @jimk taken on either my 2nd or 4th lap out that traverse.

Jim and Keaton, the young Virginian, and I also did steep narrow chute on our 3rd lap to area (will add photos someday). It was just past Rasta Chutes and ended in Goblin Gully. Keaton and I went up Little Cloud one more time and found an entry into Upper Cirque that was do-able. We also saw some guys tucking out of the Cirque into flats below. We did a lap on Wilbere then I met @jimk near Creekside for the beer tasting he'd offered. We decided to do it at the top of Wilbere where we leveled bench and tasted a couple of good beers from Montana. We were surprised to be joined by cosmoliu from SkiTalk who Jim knew then many other who celebrate at 430 at the top of Wilbere another great day at Snowbird.

I shut down Garmin before my last Wilbere lap so I added another 725' to the vertical on the two Garmin reports below to get vertical of 22,675 for my day. I plan to ski until ~12 tomorrow, then drive across NV and stay in S Tahoe and ski Kirkwood on my way home on Wed.

 

[Tony Crocker]

There is nothing for me to add here to posts by kingslug and Tseeb. Liz and I were at Alta Sunday with former admin, kingslug and company. Monday Liz and I skied with Adam, Alexa, Ben, Eddie and Chris, but mostly groomers as ALexa was having boot issues.

I have been worn down by skiing 25 out of 29 days, but today March 10 I have a cold, and with the overcast skies it seems good day to take off. Liz was out about 10:30-1:30 and there is more hard snow than the past two days plus some bad vis in places where snow is good (Mark Malu, Rastas.)

The day off has also given me the time to write a detailed report from Friday March 6.

 

[tseeb]

Sorry to hear @Tony Crocker most likely ended up with my cold that has been with me since at least the day at Showdown when I stopped to buy some cough drop at Niehart. I know that it is a common misconception that being in the cold and wind can give you a cold. More likely source was gondola at Revelstoke or Kicking Horse. I hope nobody else ends up with it. My cold also affected my goal of skiing all 24 days on my trip as I took Tuesday 3/3 off to try to get over it and be stronger for Big Sky. Assuming I get a few hours at Kirkwood today, I will have skied 23/24 days on trip and 26 of the last 30 days.

Tuesday March 10, 2026 was my 4th day in a row skiing Snowbird and my earliest start at 935. I had three laps on Mineral Basin skiing the main groomer once and skier packed on either side of it twice. Singles line from skiers left stayed short and was well managed but was a minute or two. I skied and rode Little Cloud 5x, three times going out Lizard's Trail to Hoop's but not finding as good light or snow as previous afternoon.

Once I went right over hump and skied steep face into Goblin's Gully. And once I skied fast down groomed main Mark Malu Fork which was great where it faced N but very firm where it turned to W. My last time up Little Cloud I entered Lower Cirque and cut right into Middle Cirque to see if I could see any of extreme comp. I finished at about 1145 with a fast Peruvian Lap than included Middle Men's Downhill. I only count 10 lift-served runs as Garmin includes the 150' vertical from Info Booth Bridge to Creekside lift. My first day leaving Iron Blosam I went down stairs we used to use to get to bridge to old Wilbere lift base then did longer walk up to bridge. The rest of week I did flat walk to/from Info Booth bridge

My drive starting at noon to S Tahoe cabin was 580 miles. I stopped about 2 and took a 20-minute nap. I was disappointed that Carlin gas station that Gas Buddy said was $2.79 was really $3.29 if you paid cash. I also stopped as Costco in Carson City for $4.09 gas (before 5% cashback) and a little shopping and then went to In N Out nearby, then stopped as Safeway in Roundhill, NV before getting to cabin at almost 9 PM. I gained an hour, so travel time including stops and nap was 10 hours. Then I watched the Warriors comeback & lose in OT. Dust storm approaching Carlin.

Source of the dust was ?

I always turn S at Fernley to avoid slightly longer route turning at Reno. I had headwind, often strong, most of the way across NV.
Lenticular clouds to E of Alt-95 and 50 miles or more E of Sierra Nevada resemble spaceships.

Sunset over Sierra after turning E onto US-50. A lot of of the color comes from air traffic. Surprised my windshield does not look worse.

 

[jimk]

Cool shot of the clouds! Big tip of the hat to @tseeb . The guy is a machine, even when a little under the weather. He is finishing a long road trip where he skied something like 25 out of 28 days throughout western US and BC.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Cool shot of the clouds!

Those lenticular clouds are crazy. I remember seeing them in New Mexico. They don't occur back east.

My cold also affected my goal of skiing all 24 days on my trip as I took Tuesday 3/3 off to try to get over it and be stronger for Big Sky. Assuming I get a few hours at Kirkwood today, I will have skied 23/24 days on trip and 26 of the last 30 days.

As bonkers as the clouds! I need a day off after six or seven, partially to give my legs a break but also to mix things up so the skiing doesn't feel like a job and my eyes don't become "jaded."

 

[kingslug]

Skied 25 out of 28 in feb..too much. Started feeling sick and worn out. But when it snows you have to go..especially this season.

 

[tseeb]

As bonkers as the clouds! I need a day off after six or seven, partially to give my legs a break but also to mix things up so the skiing doesn't feel like a job and my eyes don't become "jaded."

Skied 25 out of 28 in feb..too much. Started feeling sick and worn out. But when it snows you have to go..especially this season.

I find I get stronger after each day in a row I ski and that after 5 or 6 days in a row I can even ski moguls with good form.

But confined line like this photo in narrow chute take of me by @jimk are still tough even on the 15.9 radius carvers I skied that afternoon.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I skied 25 out of 29 days Feb. 9 - Mar. 9. I’ve never been this consistently tired, so average vertical is way down. Historically a day just skiing groomers might be sufficient to reset a normal energy level and one day off would nearly always work.

Most likely explanation is age. Al Solish suggests that an exercise program sufficient in one’s 60s may not be sufficient in one’s 70’s.