Snowbasin, Feb. 1, 2021

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
NASJA’s Western Winter Summit was hosted by Ogden this year. I have not attended one of these since 2012. They are usually in this time frame, when Liz and I have been targeting the Alps during several recent seasons.

We arrived in Ogden Sunday afternoon and the 7 attendees had a tour of Weber State’s new outdoor recreation facility. At left is a view of the upper part of a 55 foot climbing wall.
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This area is also used to train first responders. The flat gray wall simulates a window which responders might have to exit and rappel down. Between two of the landings was a manhole cover where they could train in transferring an injured person.

The climbing emphasis is due to the Lowe brothers who grew up in Ogden. Most famous was Jeff Lowe.
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Jeff donated most of these historic ice axes.
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There is also an extensive ski rental and repair shop staffed by students.
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Outside of ski season this facility rents camping, climbing, kayaking and rafting equipment.

Liz joined us for skiing at Snowbasin Monday, led by marketing director Megan Collins.
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With Megan are Dan Giesen, Curtis Fong and Mario Montero.

Between conversation and an excellent ski day I did not take all that many pictures. Here is the view off the back of Strawberry to the northern part of the Great Salt Lake.
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In the foreground is Hill Air Force base, the largest employer in Ogden and the training facility for F-35s. They take off around sunset and make quite a racket.

The weather was mostly overcast with some sunny breaks after lunch. Snow was nearly all packed powder. Ungroomed steeps were smooth chalk with some irregularities on the runouts.

We took 2 runs on Needles and 3 on Strawberry. I returned to the base area via Strawberry Fields/The Walrus.
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I never made it to Lone Tree but got this distant picture of it as we came out of lunch at Needles Lodge.
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I couldn’t resist including the snowboarder in the foreground.

We then took two runs on John Paul. On the intermediate way down we saw this slide path.
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Farther down we get a view up Mt. Ogden Bowl.
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The Allen Peak tram is closed this season as it’s too confining.

Here Megan is explaining the two Olympic downhill routes.
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We skied the middle section of Grizzly in soft well paced bumps and the next lower part of Wildflower which was mostly groomed. Liz and I took an extra run on Pork Barrel and Needles run and finished with 24,700 vertical.

This was my 12th day lifetime at Snowbasin. I often ski a non-LCC Utah area on incoming day to Iron Blosam, and in terrain quality Snowbasin is my area of choice for that option. Liz had only been here before a couple of times, both in fairly well advanced spring conditions. But this time she was quite impressed.
 
I always liked Snowbasin a lot and tried to go once during any SLC visit; however, I just realized that it's been five years since my last day there. I assume that being on the Epicpass has turned it into a zoo on weekends and holidays?

Seeing the pic of Lone Tree, I still can't believe you took Liz down that a while back. Props to her for surviving!
 
The snowpack is still a bit low tide. Lone Tree is normally fairly wide. It looks like 2 narrow chutes in that pic from last week. Strawberry Fields had a few more features than usual too. I thought I would get to Lone Tree Wednesday but weather was bad and the Strawberry gondola was closed.

jamesdeluxe":29kzox1s said:
I assume that being on the Epicpass has turned it into a zoo on weekends and holidays?
There was a lag of several years after the Olympics when Snowbasin was very quiet. In recent years the weekends have been much busier and that precedes the Epic Pass affiliation. I'm skeptical the Epic Pass has a big impact here. Only full Epic passes get 7 days. Epic Local passes get just two days. Weekends are extra busy in 2021 for any ski area that has a local population base.

Snowbasin has pricey day tickets now. Liz' was $129, and that was for a weekday with $20 off for purchase a week in advance.
 
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