Utah - Day One
February 12, 2005
Skied Park City yesterday. Very good conditions w/ about a foot of fresh snow, and plenty of sunshine. Really had a good time with the runs off of the King Con, Thayer, and McKonkey lifts. Got in some very good mogul practice on a variety of runs with Blue Slip Bowl being the toughest.
We were tempted to hike out to the ridge (Pine Cone) for more untracked powder but we have four more days of skiing in front of us. Today will be either The Canyons or Deer Valley.
Sounds like it's dumping in Utah again. Over the past month, Utah had barely received any new snow (only 10 inches.)
Alta Snow Report Go get em!
Now that truly brings a smile to my lips!
DAY TWO - The Canyons
Hopped on the shuttle over to The Canyons yesterday morning. After what seemed like a mile hike from the bus stop to the gondola we were off. The day didn't start off great. We skied the right hand side of the resort (can't remember the names of the lifts or trails) where they had groomed most everything and the snow was very hard, bordering in icy.
We caught an early & quick lunch (gatorade and granola bars) then decided to work our way to the left hand part of the resort. This was the best idea we had all day. The skiing off the dreamscape lift was superb. Nice soft snow covering mid-size moguls made for several enjoyable runs. Great times.
We started to work our way back to the base to end the day and decided to try Elk Ridge off of the Saddleback chair. It was a black diamond with big moguls but I was holding my own for a while. Then the trail narrowed to about a one bump width which freaked me out. I paniced wiped out and lost a ski. The slope then opened back up and became fairly steep (Lower Shays steep). I was doing ok until I was about half-way through a turn when my ski released again sending me into what could best be described as a cartwheel; thank goodness for soft snow. Looked and discovered the culprit was the the top of a tree. Finished that run and decided to call it a day and have a beer.
Today, Alta.
Quote:
We started to work our way back to the base to end the day...
you didnt go up to 9990? you missed the best the canyons has to offer.
Hey man! If you want to make some turns let me know! I live just off the base of The Canyons .... and yeah Chad's right 9990 has been sweet .... if you know where to ski. And lots of nookie stuff off of Peak 5. I agree though ... the "old" part of the area (the part that use to be Wolf Mountain/Park West) is not my fav. But some of the groomers off of the Golden Eagle or Short cut lifts are good.
Oh duuuh here is my email address:
emosel@core.comlater!
OH, got it
Grr... you should've gone up 9990 and atleast taken a run down Fright Gully or over towrda Fantasy Ridge down Dutch's Hollow. Really, you should've explored the Red Pine Chutes (esp. Charlie Brown) and hit a few runs down Fantasy Ridge back to Tombstone.
Did you atleast ski that trail right beneath Tombstone near its upper terminus? So perfect...
canaanman - u know your $h!t .... those are great lines! Fright Face has lots of hidden steeps if you know how to access them .... plus Fantasy is a little known stash that (if you can find it) yield great rewards ... just did it on Monday and it ruled!
Eh... I visited the place a few days last spring. Pretty epic terrain. The cover was starting to thin, which led to some pretty crazy drops through narrorw chutes near the bottom of 9990. Moraine is fun as well... great lower trail. Dreamscape looked good... but it faced pretty north and didn't melt-out and soften at all really. I would've liked to ride more gladed terrain esp. by Tombstone... but I made do for the lacking East Coast conditions.
Didn't have time to explore the whole place. There are three of us out here. Two of us (my brother and I) will ski just most everyting; he definitely will while I'll back off every now and then. The other is just advancing from greens to blue groomers. We can't completely ditch her so we spend some time on those more mild runs with her.
Caught the 8 am shuttle over to Alta, and was probably about the 10th chair up on the Sunnyside lift. Cruised over to the Sugarloaf lift and did some nice warm up runs exploring some of the small bowls over there that still had some nice soft snow, though it was pretty much tracked out.
We then hiked up the shoulder of Baldy for some untracked lines. It was going nice until on one turn my right ski got hung up (this week is the first I've ever skied fresh snow this deep). I didn't fall or anything but I felt a slight twinge in my knee as I muscled the ski back into place.
We worked our way over the Collins lift just exploring along the way, dropping off the groomed path quite often. It was riding the Collins lift back up that I felt a slight throb in the knee. Long story short, I'm pretty sure I sprained my knee. I skied a few more hours but had to stick to groomers while my partner explored a lot of the black diamonds off the Supreme and Wildcat Chairs. BTW, he did not do High Rustler which I guess is one of the proving ground runs that people brag about. Some of the guys on the shuttle did and said the traverse over would be a double black at most resorts as a slip and fall would probably lead to severe injury. The one guy said he just had to go sit in the lodge for about 45 minutes afterwards just to get his head straight again.
Lastly, I just want to add that Alta is truly impressive. The amount of extreme terrain that is open is just amazing and absolutely beautiful. If you've never been and are at least a sold intermediate skier, go.
Don't know if I'll ski Friday as I'll have to see how the knee holds up.
you havent been to utah till u have been to snowbird or alta. lcc is the best skiing in the us other than cloudmont, al.
Let there be no doubt...Alta is the ultimate skiing experience.
The Colonel
Ok, it is snowing now here in Utah. Took today off to ice the knee which appears fine. The snow is a bit wet here at the base of Park City and tomorrow is a Saturday. I'm trying to decide between Solitude and Snowbird. I know Snowbird has more terrain, but I'm thinking I'll have far less crowds at Solitude (my Silvercreek theorem as applied to Utah). BTW, it looks like my brother tore is rotator cuff in a high speed crash yesterday at Alta. He can't even move is right arm.
BTW, went back and looked at The Canyons trail map. We did do the 990 chair for one run. We skied the black diamond to the left, not the chutes to the right. It was a very, very nice run, but had been skied (and packed down) a bit more than the runs off of dreamscape.
I love the bottom of the 9990 Chair... there's this sign that just reads, "All Expert. No Easy Way Down." You don't believe it until you're about 2/3 of the way up and the lift goes vertical.
caananman -- hee hee heee LOL shhhhhhhh ;-) just the DCSKI secret ... when tourist ask where they should ski I send them over to "the "Old Part" ...Super Condor and Golden Eagle I tell them "oh it's totally awesome" just so they go over there .... I'm soooo bad!
Hah. We skied Super Condor first and were beginning to think we made a mistake.
Anyway, I couldn't get on a shuttle to Solitude and my brother thought hed'd do a half day so I skied Park City again. There was anywhere from 2-5 inches of fresh snow on the mountain this morning ... and lots and lots of fog. Explored around a bit in the morning before finding the best weather and snow off of Thaynes and Motherload. Long story short I ended up skiing solo as my brother ended up at the ER and readiology shop (torn rotator cuff). Pretty much destroyed my quads skiing bumps all day; I actually think I got better The only downer was that I didn't get to ski off of Jupiter. I just didn't feel confident skiing that type of territory that I didn't know in the fog. Oh well, still had a blast.
That is all
