Solitude, UT 12/13/2006

Marc Guido

Marc Guido

New member
I took a break from work yesterday to make a few runs with friends from out of town.

Cover in BCC is still lagging behind that in LCC, but it's skiing rather well for mid-December, and there's still a heckuva lot more snow back in Honeycomb than there is on the front side.

With that in mind, we headed up the Eagle Express lift around 9:30, and headed straight down to Sunrise and Summit to head for Honeycomb (the gate out to Parachute and Milk Run remains closed, and with good reason). The untracked was of a bizarre consistency, very sugary...almost like surface hoar. Yet it skied very, very well.

Back up Honeycomb Return, and straight back down to Sunrise and Summit for another round, this time out to Black Forest. More of the same. I'd expected it to be a bit sun-affected with it's westerly exposure, but it wasn't.

Back up Honeycomb Return and back to the truck to return to work.

Sorry, kids - no photos, although it wasn't a very photogenic day anyway.

Friends advised that it began snowing in earnest after my departure, and continued skiing through places like Headwall Forest until the closing bell.
 
E., I read your report with interest because I've noticed that Solitude has very few runs open on the front side. This is a source of concern for me because my family is headed to SLC from Dec. 23- 30. Last year when we were there in this same time period, Solitude was our main crowd-avoidance strategy during the 12/26 - 12/30 madness, thanks to good advice on this website. It was great -- uncrowded slopes and no real liftlines, even at this busy time. Unless they open significantly more runs next week, though, I'm afraid that this year things might be pretty cozy on the ones that are open. Does it look like they're close to opening more terrain on the front side?

Another crowd avoidance strategy we tried last year was Snowbasin, but it was icy (some locals said it had rained and re-frozen recently), and from I see about the recent weather, it may be the same this year. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to hope for the perfect storm to drop a load of snow next week. :roll:
 
You've got nothing to worry about. There's very little closed, save for a few key access gates like Navaronne and Parachute. And a healthy storm moves in toniht from the PNW.
 
Great! Maybe this is the perfect storm I'm looking for :D

But according to the Solitude website, as of now, they've only got a handful of blues and 1 black open on the front side.
 
I don't know where their webmaster is getting his or her info, but that's not accurate. You can pretty much ski where you want on the front side provided that you keep your eyes open and it doesn't involve passing through a gate.
 
johnnash's concern is correct in that in low snow scenarios as I experienced Christmas 1986 only Alta and Brighton will have worry free skiing. And crowding becomes severe when those areas attract the refugees from the places with less snow. You should definitely hit Alta before Dec. 26 when the thundering hordes arrive.

As admin points out, current conditions are not ideal but much better than 1986. From what I've read Snowbasin is still quite restricted, so I would not recommend going there until we hear reports otherwise. A good sign would be opening of the Strawberry lift which has lots of wide open blue terrain.

My understanding is that there are quite a variety of blue groomers available at Park City and Deer Valley, probably assisted by snowmaking. I would recommend you go there, with Park City probably preferred before Dec. 26. Deer Valley is probably manageable anytime as it limits tickets and the price scares some people away.

Brighton and Solitude are probably OK for you anytime. Based upon what I observed last spring I would suggest you avoid Snowbird unless it dumps a lot before you arrive, and even then go only before Dec. 26.
 
James Deluxe and Admin, I apologize. I was mis-reading the Solitude website. But they really do need to revise their presentation. In the table of trails, grey means open but not groomed, and black means groomed. But immediately beneath that table is the legend for the facilities table, which appears to refer to the trails table above, and that legend says "black = open, grey = closed". Very confusing. Anyway, thanks for allaying my concerns somewhat.

And, Tony, thanks for the good advice. We'll avoid Snowbasin and will definitely hit Park and probably Snowbird (since we missed that last year) before Christmas or on Christmas day. Alta and Deer Valley are out unless my 2 boarders decide to take a day off (not outside the realm of possibility) and (for Alta) I can sedate my wife so she can ride a lift without bars :shock: . You cured my phobia on chair 23, but she sadly missed that experience :lol:
 
johnnash":2rursvof said:
... and (for Alta) I can sedate my wife so she can ride a lift without bars :shock: . You cured my phobia on chair 23, but she sadly missed that experience :lol:
Click to expand...
So Tony, exactly how did you do that? I may be facing the same proposition soon.
 
Admin":1m16p1wu said:
Marc_C":1m16p1wu said:
Meaning I may need to cure someone of their phobia of chairs w/o "safety" bars. Won't know till the relatives and their kids arrive xmas day.
Click to expand...

In that case, you may not like the answer that's forthcoming:

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... php?t=1568
Click to expand...
I don't even know if will be an issue, and, if so, whether with the kids, the mom, or the dad. I figure I'll just carry several different doses of Valium or a flask of brandy for the hot cocoa.
 
John sucked it up and did great on Chair 23. Notice that iron grip with the left hand.
040906_23nash.jpg

Chair 4 on the other hand...
040906_04nash.jpg
 
Yep, once Tony convinced me that I had to ski Scotty's Bowl (not hard since Scott's my son) and chair 23 was the only way to get there, the rest followed naturally. And once you do chair 23, you can always say, "Hey, if I rode chair 23, I can ride chair X". Actually, I had it easy due to the huge base at Mammoth last spring, which reduced the height of chair 23 considerably.

But if your guests have a problem, you could consider what someone suggested to us -- use bungee cords to attach to the chair. Or what my wife found helpful (we bought tickets one afternoon at Alta before we realized that none of the lifts have chicken bars) was to just keep talking. Even in near-blizzard winds, with the lift chair bumping around like an airplane landing in a thunderstorm, she toughed it out, and she now says she may even consider going back to Alta. We'll see :wink:

But, Tony, how much for that chair 4 photo (with all negatives)? JK
 
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