Alta/Snowbird, UT, Mar. 7-8, 2021

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
We arrived at Iron Blosam in familiar blue skies and warm temperatures. Sunday reached about the mid-40’s, warmer than any of our road trip days. However I’ve seen warmer than this, so this time most north facing terrain retained winter snow.

A large group from Iron Blosam headed up Peruvian about 10:30. 49er Gully and the last Fossil Chute I skied to Baldy were already soft. From Baldy I skied into Alta to meet Admin and get a replacement Ikon Pass. I had stashed it too carefully when I left on the two week road trip, so when I looked for it Sunday I used the 2019-20 Ikon from my ski wallet. Admin was skiing with Colin and Turner, who has skied in some Junior freeskiing competitions.

We took a couple of Harold’s/Tombstone laps, as that’s where the easily accessible north facing ungroomed was. We then skied to Supreme for a couple of cruisers, one of which was the infrequently groomed Challenger. We then took Sugarloaf back to the Collins side.
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Admin is at lower right. I became reacquainted with the reality of weekend skiing at high profile ski areas. The Collins and Sugarloaf lines were present all day, averaging maybe 10 minutes. I heard some chairs at Snowbird, notably Mineral Basin, were more like 15 minutes.

Around 1:30 Colin and Turner left, and Admin and I had quesadillas from the food truck which replaced my primo Tesla parking spot from last year. After 2PM we were joined by Liz and decide to test West Rustler via the Saddle Traverse to avoid too long a commitment. Admin said it had not softened Saturday, and unfortunately not quite on Sunday either. The warmest days must have been earlier as we saw in Montana.

So we took the Ballroom traverse to Harold’s:
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Admin and I found the best snow under a confined entry needing a diagonal sideslip past some rocks. Liz is in the more open area between the rope line and the large trees.

Admin drove Liz to Iron Blosam while I skied the very tedious Blackjack traverse in variable snow. View of Baldy Chutes from my last Collins ride:
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Monday started out the same as Sunday, clear with temps mid 40’s by midday. Thus as on Sunday north facing remained winter snow and south facing softened early. The afternoon was different as it clouded over and there was some wind, most conspicuously while riding Sugarloaf at Alta.

Liz, Garry, Stephan, Michelle and I were on Ikons and spent most of Monday at Alta. 49er Gully was a bit crunchier than Sunday, likely due to the breeze. Liz and I cut though these bumps into lower Lupine Loop.
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We took a Mineral Basin lap before heading to Alta and found that Powder Paradise and anything farther out that direction still had winter snow.

After a cruiser on Sugarloaf we skied Chartreuse, Stephan and Michelle here:
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We noticed some people skiing Devil’s Castle fluidly so decided that would be worth the effort. Garry, Liz and Stephan on the short step-up to the traverse line:
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Skiing Devil’s Castle:
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We regrouped near the Cecret Chutes.
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From there we skied 2 groomers on Supreme, then up Sugarloaf and the EBT to the Collins side. Here’s our group on Ballroom, now in the afternoon overcast:
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After a Harold’s run, we skied Extrovert to Sugarloaf and made sure we got back into Snowbird by 3PM. Exiting Mineral Basin, I wanted to make use of being at the top of Hidden Peak during a week we weren’t using the tram. However, Liz and Michelle went the other way into the Gad Valley and took a run on Gadzoom to finish their day.

This was my somewhat flat light view into Macaroni.
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Snow was very soft packed powder through that and most of the way down Upper Silver Fox. From its constriction we took the blind traverse skier’s left into the open bowl under the tram Garry is skiing here.
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Lower down Garry cruised while Stephan skied Dalton’s and I skied Green Forest. Riding Peruvian, Green Forest is the gap behind the first line of trees.
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We all skied Chip’s to groomed Lower Silver Fox and called it a day with 11,700 vertical at Alta and 9,500 at Snowbird. Liz and I spent most of these two days at Alta because we are nearing our Ikon limit and have Snowbird only tickets for Tuesday/Wednesday.
 
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Tell Michelle and Stephan we hope to be back and skiing with them next year. I have to ask why you bought Snowbird tickets for Tues/Wed when you could have skied Brighton and Solitude at least one of those days for free. My guesses are:
1. After extended road trip on the way to Iron Blosam, you want to take advantage of being at Snowbird and not drive to go skiing during the week (and don't really care what it costs to do that).
2. Conditions are that much better in LCC vs BCC, which does not seem as likely. I'm not sure I understand how Tahoe got hit hard during week and Denver could have biggest snowstorm in 135 years starting today and UT is not predicted to get much.
3. The two-day advanced purchase Snowbird pass is a lot better deal than one-day which also does not seem likely.
 
We are skiing Solitude today. Leaving Iron Blosam once during the week is enough. If IB is the only time we are in Utah, the 5 Ikon base days work just fine, as Stephan and Michelle are doing. And many in our group with base Ikons are not here the entire week or take a day off.

The problem is that we had 2 LCC days in January. But Liz also took Tuesday off as she usually takes one day off at IB. So the extra tickets cost $300 purchased 3 weeks ahead with mine also being at a senior rate. Having full Ikons instead of base would have cost $500 more for 2 people, so what we did was still better.

Plans are not predictable when you buy passes in April of the prior season. Even the 3 week advance Snowbird ticket was a potential issue. Liz originally planned Wednesday off but Snowbird did us a favor switching that to Tuesday,
 
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