I flew into Utah on Saturday evening 1/21/17, This is the first ski trip of my life when there is too much snow! Had probably the deepest powder day of my life yesterday (Sunday 1/22/17) at Snowbird. I was told they got 27" in a 24 hr period from Friday PM to Sat PM. And it's continued to snow on and off since I got here. Supposedly finally clearing Tuesday. Good. I couldn't get up LCC today 1/23 due to avi - road closure. Believe even the lifts were down with Interlodge measures in effect today. So an Unplanned rest and laundry day. Going to try again tomorrow. Here are some pictures from Sunday 1/22 at Snowbird, UT to share with my DCSki friends while I wait out the storm.
I'll give you a mini-travelogue:
Flew out of DCA on 1/21, got nice view of Miracle Mile, Sears Tower, Soldier Field, etc before changing plane at Chicago Midway.
With this much snow road closure is a big issue. We went up at 545am on Sunday ahead of a two hour road closure and killed some time soaking in Cliff Lodge hot tub before lifts open. Tram on wind hold most of the day.
No tram, no Mineral Basin, skied a lot off Gadzoom, Gad 2 and used Little Cloud to get to Cirque. This might be in area of Get Serious:
Is this get serious chutes area? I made a giant crater here later in the day. Nice stranger helped pull me out or I would have been 10 minutes digging out.
gad 2 area?
My son's friend Mr. M showed me around the mtn on his new 4FRNT Devastator skis, 194cm x 111mm. I was on a pair of borrowed Volkl One's 186cm x 116mm. All shots in this post of guy in green are Mr. M. He is my new best friend. I don't know Snowbird that well and he was kind enough to share a monster powder day with an old slow dude on first day at altitude from VA.
Good day to ski trees, I think this is off Gad 2 chair.
This could be an ad for 4FRNT Devastator skis!
Mr. M laid a Utah style hockey stop on me
My favorite run of the day was Lower Cirque. You take a long traverse from the summit (which was very low vis this day), but the snow was The Best. In fact, yesterday was better snow than anything I saw in three visits to Utah last winter. Lower Cirque is not too steep, but steep enough. We made three passes on Lower Cirque during the day. The traverse got real windy and nasty or we might have done it more times.
Hard to see, but Mr. M is to the left and he's got snow hitting his chest.
He had a great rhythm going, but then wiped out, which left him up to his neck in snow. He later told me he wiped out because he got a moment of vertigo. This was a day when you had no business skiing offpiste without a partner and Mr. M was my MVP!
If we can make it up the hill tomorrow 1/24 should be insane. Vince will be with me.
Nice pix of my home stomping ground, Jim! Have a great time tomorrow! As you suspect, it'll be off the hook!
Meanwhile, we're really hurting in the mid-Atlantic after today's torrential rain and wind. Liberty closed its lifts at 5pm. They're also seeing water flowing out from under the snowpack, so it's collapsing under all the warmth and water volume. No sub-freezing weather until Friday, at the earliest.
C'est la vie, right?
Road into LCC never opened on 1/23. Too many avalanches after work by UDOT, including several that slid onto the road. Those staying in Alta were interlodged during the day. Interlodge again starting at 8:30pm tonight. UDOT hoping to get the road open by 9:00am on 1/24.
http://fox13now.com/2017/01/23/caught-on-video-avalanche-in-little-cottonwood-canyon/
Looking forward to more pics!
Thanks MarzNC. Intermountain snows. Tornados in the South. Nor'Easter in northeast. Floods in CA. And the only thing freezing in DC is USG hiring?!?
We were waiting in traffic at the base of LCC hoping for a 9am opening of the access road. At about 845am a policeman told us they wouldn't open at least until 1pm, so we gave up. This avalanche crossed the road at 915am. Good job Utah DOT: http://fox13now.com/2017/01/23/caught-on-video-avalanche-in-little-cottonwood-canyon/
Avalanche causing problems over by Snowbasin and Powder Mtn too:
WEBER COUNTY, Utah ”” Powder Mountain Resort and Snowbasin Resort are inaccessible Monday as crews work to clear an avalanche from Powder Mountain Highway.
The Utah Department of Transportation announced the highway, SR-158, was closed shortly after noon.
UDOT spokesman John Gleason said the road was closed about 90 minutes before the slide occurred, and the avalanche slid into the vehicle of a man who works at Powder Mountain
Heard that Honeycomb Canyon at Solitude didn't open. But there was plenty of fun to be had elsewhere at Solitude and not very many people at all.
totally rooooolzes ! glad you caught that. i love la nina winters here! yeah and - this weekend was about chicks man I was in The March on Saturday it took us almost two hours from the Can to the rally on Main Street walk 1/2 half of the way b/c of traffic and there were by all accounts 5,000-7,000 people marching. I'll put that in perpecitve - the 2010 cenus put tht total number of people living in Park City at 7,550 people so that turn out was a big deal. Came back home and skied lots of untracked pow the rest of the afternoon. And the next day.
And I got to say fock Tump with a thousand of other locals and visitors on the same day!
A Good Day!
Yah Mon!
JimK wrote:
I flew into Utah on Saturday evening 1/21/17,
Can't wait to hear about today, keep the report coming, it's a great one as always, Jim.
Snowbird, 1/24/17. Awesome day. Possibly the deepest/best snow I've ever skied. They've had 70" since 1/20. Today took patience. I skied with my son from bell to bell, but only Gadzoom was open early, as day went on other chairs and the tram came online. each new opening created a rush to pillage virgin territory. what an experience. these shots are of my son Vince. He gave me the grand tour today of his beloved adopted home.
Vince in his happy place, getting ready to ski Great Scott. It was full of snow and skied quite easy.
Jim I am happy for you. That both looks and reads terrific. Those first shots looking down the chutes nearly give me vertigo. Vince looks very happy also, best thing a parent can see. Thanks for sharing.
Way to get after it, Jim. Thanks for the stoke. We can use it back home.
Hold on a moment. This is mid week. I thought Vince had a real job now hahahahaha!
crgildart wrote:
Hold on a moment. This is mid week. I thought Vince had a real job now hahahahaha!
You know it's a good day at Snowbird when all the locals take sick, 1/25/17. My son's buddy JW in yellow rides a ski on these days that is 141mm underfoot:
Vince in Wilbere Bowl
JW surfing
Baldy opened today for the first time in several days. The other guys left me in the dust on the hike, but I made it eventually. No friends on a powder day, no family either.
took a breather by by this spot on West Baldy i think
Taken 1/24 waiting in the morning for lifts to open, this was a great day. Notice about 6 feet of snow on top of Gadzoom base terminal.
Also 1/24, my son got some shots of me to prove I've been in Utah this week and this is not some kind of geezer ski bum hoax. Pardon my low angle, I don't make for pretty pictures in the steeps.
Jim,
You rock! BTW, I sent you an email.
MorganB
Save some of that stuff for me. We'll be out there in March.
that is amazing, how very, very awesome. Thanks for the pictures and stoke
Perhaps my most fun day this week, 1/25/17. The tram was walk-on all day. Spoiled locals didn't come out since only 3" new last night. Skied a bunch of burly tram runs with my son in AM, then did solo geezer cruising in PM. sorry to be lazy, need to eat dinner, photos from today on page ten of this thread:
http://www.epicski.com/t/147211/2016-17-utah-weather-news-and-chat/270#post_2052662
JimK wrote:
Perhaps my most fun day this week, 1/25/17. The tram was walk-on all day. Spoiled locals didn't come out since only 3" new last night. Skied a bunch of burly tram runs with my son in AM, then did solo geezer cruising in PM. sorry to be lazy, need to eat dinner, photos from today on page ten of this thread:
http://www.epicski.com/t/147211/2016-17-utah-weather-news-and-chat/270#post_2052662
'Been a busy stretch on the work front, Jim, so I'm just catching up on your thread. As always, epic photos even what you're skiing is restricted from too much snow.
Your stamina just amazes me. I'm grateful to know, though, that even you geezed out and took some cruisers in the afternoon Smart move so you can enjoy the rest of your trip.
(I did ski this Wednesday morning at Whitetail. Sunny, in the mid-50s when we left at 11:45 a.m., but still 100% open with tolerable thinning in some places.)
Woody
Niiii-iii--ccc-eeeeeee ! Freakkin' work is holding be back but as I said we are driving to Steamboat today so sorry I will miss skiing with you. Take care and have fun!
I saw a statistic that Snowbird received 81" of snow from Jan 20-27, 2017. (PS: Woody, Motrin is my drug of choice on ski vacations.)
Today, 1/27/17 I went over to Park City for some solo skiing. Nice day, first sunny day of my trip. Parked at Canyons Cabriolet and made it over to Jupiter Peak and back to Super Condor Express.
I walked up a short way from the Quicksilver connector gondola mid station and skied part of Pine Cone Ridge, nice view up there.
View looking up a section of Pine Cone Ridge
I took three runs off Jupiter Peak, left, right and center. I skied the chute to left in this photo, this might be what's marked as Silver Cliff on trail map.
Nice view from up there in the chute, everything is really white around Park City too.
At end of day I skied this slope off top of Super Condor Express Chair, I think it's A Chute:
Tomorrow 1/28/17 I go back for one last day at Snowbird, then my snowy January visit to Utah is over. What a week!!
Catching up, a few shots from Snowbird yesterday 1/27:
Vince in the trees near Mach Schnell
Vince getting ready to drop into Elevator Chute in Upper Cirque area
He skies with finesse
unlike yours trulyin tank mode
Unbeknownst to me, nice guy in top of above photo took a video of my run down Elevator and spoke to us in next tram ride. Here's his video of arthritic old dude scratching his way down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVfejaJftR4
Area we're skiing is to the lookers right of the Snowbird tramline
Sun came out for just a few minutes to light up Mineral Basin. Lot whiter than last time I saw it in April 2017.
This is THE snowiest ski trip I have ever taken. Last night I was counting ski things the way some people count sheep. I've skied mostly in the mid-Atlantic over the last 50 consecutive seasons. Also have skied quite a bit in New England. And I believe I have the equivalent of approximately 22 weeks life time spent skiing in the US west since first western trip in 1976. This one's had the deepest/best snow of them all.
Back in DC area. Last post for awhile that you guys have to put up with western ski eye candy.
Yesterday morning Jan 28 I skied a final few hours at Snowbird with my son leading me around in the Peruvian Gulch side of the mtn. I took a flight home in the afternoon, but in the AM we used the Tram and the Peruvian Chair for some great runs. It was a busy Saturday, but the lift lines were very manageable, in fact we walked-on the tram twice.
My ski days on this trip were spent mostly at Snowbird (Jan 22, 24, 25, 26, 28) and one day at Park City (Jan 27). Only Jan 27 and 28 were mostly sunny. All the other days were mostly or totally cloudy with frequent snow showers and challenging visibility. With the bright sun on Jan 28 the mtn presented a whole new type of fun and I could finally see terrain I'd been skiing all week!
Nice views of Little Cottonwood Canyon near summit of the tram
I used this traverse a ton this week, lot less jarring to ski it in daylight. It takes you to a lot of the renowned steeps under the tram.
if you follow it to the end you go past p-tex point near tower 3
vince took me down a neat gulch here, believe it's called Dalton's Draw
lower down same run
here's a view of it from peruvian chair:
The cirque, great scott and summit are to left of this photo, p-tex pt is at right near tram tower. that tram serves 3000 vertical feet of serious terrain.
it's great to have my own home-grown mtn guide, Vince and his buddies showed me stuff I would never find/attempt on my own.
This is the top of Great Scott near the summit of Hidden Peak, it was my last run of a fantastic and snowy week I'll never forgot. Snowbird got about 6' of snow while I was in town. I shall return!
view of the wasatch from slc valley, how would you like to have this view from your backyard?
A perfectly timed trip and the pics are awesome. It's great you got to share the experience with your son! Thanks for sharing with us.
What a great trip out there, you looked great in that video, much better than I would! I wouldn't have dropped into that in the first place
A little birdie in a white helmet sent me this short video from Snowbird 2/11/17:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmJZXIkfMtk&feature=youtu.be
