12/12-Solitude Mountain Resort
The drive up BCC as the sun rose on the canyon walls was breathtaking. Although many people think otherwise, I found the scenery in BCC to be nicer and overall more pleasing to the eyes than that of LCC. Anyway. Parked near the Moonbeam lodge around 9:15, and still managed to be about the 15th car in the lot on a Sunday morning. Booting up in the back of the car, I soak in the view, enjoying the peace and less hectic pace of Solitude compared to the Park City area. Got Woodsy's voicemail that the slacker had to work that morning and couldn't meet us until around noon.
My dad and I explored the frontside, since Honeycomb was closed for bombing until slightly later in the day. We found rapidly softening spring-like snow on south faces and chalky, styrofoam in the woods and on the shaded aspects. We took it fairly easy all morning, knowing that Woodsy would most likely give us a high speed rather intense tour of his home mountain.
Met Woodsy at the base of Powderhorn around noon and headed up the mountain with YetiMan in tow. First run was down near the Powderhorn liftline, through nicely spaced trees and gullys, super soft bumps and great snow greeted us the whole way down. After that we headed up to the Summit lift and into the Corner Chute area, again, more steep, chalky snow that was emminently carvable and super fun to ski. Headed out farther along the same traverse to the Evergreen area, skiing more chutes and tree shots. Our final run through the area was down a wide open, perfectly pitched powder field with only about 5 sets of tracks on it. Powder super-G, it doesn't get any better.
My dad called it a day just before that run and headed to the midmountain lodge to chill on the sundeck, since it was about 50 degrees that day. And perfectly bluebird to boot. The only thing that could have been better would have been if it was puking snow.
For our final run we headed in Honeycomb Canyon. Although the exact name of the run we did escapes me, it was super fun. The snow was slightly sun affected, but untracked, so it was wet and smooth. It made the steeper pitch feel much more benign and encouraged haul ass turns. The runout was variable at best, but the scenery and skiable terrain that was visible back there made it feel shorter. Around 3:00 we headed to our car and down the canyon after what would turn out to be the most consistently good day of the trip.
Solitude sucks.
12/13-Park City Mountain Resort
We didn't care for PCMR. It seemed to have less snow than even othe Park City resorts, and was certainly way more crowded. Even after lapping Jupiter and McConkey's lifts, we found very little frun terrain. All of the noticeable off piste lines were bumped out, and basically everything ended in a long cat track or mellow groomer back to the lift. It seemed like the entire day was spent traversing or skiing runouts, with very little actual skiing going on. Also, it had more crowds and in general more people skiing where they shouldn't be than any other mountain we skiied. Being from NJ, I've skiied far worse, but PCMR sure as hell wasn't even worth our discount ticket price of $55. Our other main complaint was the apparent total lack of tree skiing. Every other Utah resort was rife with tree shots, but at PCMR the trees seemed too tightly spaced to be skiable. For people like us who love tree skiing, this was a disappointment of epic proportions. Although this isn't their fault, it was somewhat annoying.
We bailed early that day and headed into town for a late lunch at the Wasatch Brew Pub per Woodsy's recommendation. 4 dozen wings later, we staggered back to the condo to find a message on my cell phone. Our friends who split for Wyoming had just wrapped up a day of skiing Jackson in some of the worst snow they had ever seen. We'd be skiing with them tomorrow. Another early night of soaking in the hot tub and bedtime by 9:00
12/15-Back up BCC to Brighton
Lured by $38 lift tickets and an unpretentious, small mountain, we headed up BCC yet again, but this time to Brighton, per the request of Tim's dad. He said the night before "I wanna ski where the snow is," he was not disappointed by Brighton. Approaching Brighton Circle, we see 8 foot snowbanks and houses buried almost to the rooflines. This indeed is where the snow is. Something made me decide to break out the Spatulas that day, even though it hadn't snowed in a week. It just felt wrong to leave them in the car the whole trip. Little did I know they would be put to good use later that day.
The tree skiing at Brighton was excellent, although not as varied as The Canyons. The base must have been twice as deep here as well. Most of the terrain of Millicent was crusty and unskiable, as was the open terrain off the far lookers left chair, whose name now escapes me. Snake Creek chair delivered the goods in spades, as did Crest Express, the chair we would later use to lap the best runs of our lives. Woods shots that rolled from mellow to steep and back again rollicked through forests more reminiscent of the subalpine glades at Whistler than a mountain range adjacent to a desert. If the pitch at Brighton was more consistent, the mountain would be amazing, but I'd rather ski short shots covered in good snow than long faces covered in mank (aka Snowbasin).
Tim and I left his dad and mine to dawdle through groomers and mellow trees while we explored deeper into the woods, traversing for quite a ways into the etheral forests of BCC before dropping perfect glades.
Heading back from Milli, we spotted what appeared to be a series of pillow lines in the trees. It was a must hit for us. The only problem is that we didn't know how to access them. After figuring out their rough location, we started traversing in their general direction through the woods. Breaking trail through unconsolidated snow wasn't fun, but was so worth it. After winding through the Brighton Girls Summer Camp buildings buried under 10 feet of snow, we sidstepped to the top of an untracked pillow line, 10 days after a storm, and with an intersection of 2 cat tracks at the bottom. I dropped in first, sinking to my thighs on Spatulas and whooping with glee at the feeling of weightlessness I get dropping the off the smaller pillows. Since I didn't know what was ahead, I kept my skis pretty much on the snow and pointed out airs to Tim, who followed down a different line, enjoying bottomless landings with the parking lot in plain view of our line 150 yards away. Another lap through there and there were about 6 more sets of tracks, although many went in lower instead of sidestepping up to the top. Along the traverse out there, we noticed another area of even bigger, deep pillows hanging above the traverse. There was no way we knew of to access these without hiking, so the next lap thats what we did.
Shedding skis, we began to ascend, me breaking trail through waist deep at the shallowest to chest deep snow. We were about to lay down the first tracks of the season on these pillows. After about 30 minutes of slogging, we arrived at the top as the alpenglow began to cast its warm light across the canyon and Wolverine Cirque. This is the way to end a ski day. Totally untouched, and visible from the chairlift, I love Brighton. While we were pretty sure that we were within the resort boundary, we weren't totally sure. The line was short enough that a major slide couldn't have happened, we took all the precautions we could. With a spotter in a safe zone, we repeatedly ski cut the steepest convexity we could find, with no results. Deciding it was safe to ski one at a time, I dropped into one of the deepest runs of my life. Arcing weightless turns down a short gully and onto a pillow, I was rewarded with face shots on a pair of Spatulas a week after a storm. Shouting with joy from the bottom, I watch Tim drop in. A small air to start, a couple turns into a nice 12-15 footer that he hot tubbed to perfection. Had I seen the possibilites, I would have done the same, but alas, I'm not one to launch blind rollovers willy-nilly.
Picking up the previous traverse, we glide around the front porch and across the front yard of the Brighton Girls Summer Camp offices to our original pillow line. Moving farther to the skiers left, we find untrammeled shots down picture perfect gullies, popping of smaller pillows at the bottom and skating onto the cat track. I was say that the linking of the 2 pillow sections was the best line of my life, and again, so visible and so close to the base area, we marvel at its untrackedness. 10 minutes later, we begin heading down canyon, the sunset rays illuminating our path We got off our line after the night skiing lights had come on and the lifts stopped turning. It was the best way to end what was most likely the best day off skiing in the trip.
This is Boarderline's pic of what I believe are some of the pillows we skiied. Not sure though. The only difference was that when we skiied them there was no rock showing and the drops were still about 5 feet.
http://biglines.com/photos/blpic28560.jpg
12/16- MiniSummit Day 1. North to 'Basin
After the previous 4 of 5 days offering great snow for a week+ after a storm, we expected the same from Snowbasin. That would not be the case. We met up with Backpack, Flykdog and McWop at the base around 8:50 and headed up Needles. The off piste was crusty and unskiable for most of the day, meaning it was fast laps on the groomers. The mantra of the day was "give it a half an hour and it'll soften up nicely." Regretably, it never really did soften, except for a few select pockets. I think that consistently run-in and run-out, that was the fastest I have ever skiied. Coming from mountains with 500 vertical feet, my idea of big turns is somewhat different than those of you skiing 2500+ vert mountains day in and day out. Nevertheless, we racked up some serious vert that day.
We traversed out to the Strawberry area, passing under the fabled Boss Hog road gap, which looks way bigger in person than it ever seemed in photos. It's a same the snow wasn't right for a huckfest to ensue. We found pockets of creamy snow in Strawberry, although anything with tracks on it from earlier in the week was simply miserable to ski. A serious hoarfrost was building in areas not exposed to strong sun, and this was rather fun to ski, smooth and fast. Forays into other off-piste locales yielded mixed results, and generally a bone-jarring ride. So back to the deserted groomers we went, using the snowmaking guns as super-G gates and arcing screaming turns.
In terms of conditions, Snowbasin was the most disappointing mountain, but the terrain there is amazing. Covered in a few feet of fresh, the Basin would offer some amazing skiing. Nice pitch, long fall lines and no crowds. How can you beat that? We called it a day around 2:45, since groomers that were once soft were beginning to set up again. Getting to the base area, we snapped a few photos of the maggots there that day, including Comish who we ran into at the end, but sans Snowsprite.
Heading home with Tim and his dad, I learn of my dad's crash on what I think to be Porky Face, although I'm not totally sure. Apparently, snow had collected on his boot sole while loading and unloading from the Needles Gondola. It didn't present an issue on the ski down to the Middle Bowl chair, which they rode and began to ski down. A near fall that normally would have caused the binding to release only dislodged the boot partway, causing the toe to be out of alignment with the toepiece. A total loss of control resulted, and a turn or 2 later, the ski released, he reached for the snow and snapped his thumb righ above the base in the process.
He drove home with his thumb stuck in a Wal-Mart bag filled with snow. Skiing injuries like this are frustrating, because they keep you off snow for quite a while, despite being relatively minor. He won't be skiing for another month at least, most likely 6 weeks or so. Needless to say, he was pissed, but I look at it as "it could have been far worse, so quite yer' bitchin'."
The best part of having friends skiing with us was that this didn't ruin the rest of my trip. My mom would not have driven me up LCC to ski Alta and the Bird, but luckily, I was able to get a ride and complete the 8 mountains in 8 days circuit.
12/17- Alta Bound at Last!
Headed up LCC for the first time with Tim and his dad, soaking in the scenery. Although LCC is steeper walled and rockier than BCC, the general consensus among my friends and family was that BCC was actually more scenic. But enough of that, its time to talk skiing. Unknowingly, we blew past the lower base area and parked up by Albion, this was actually for the better, since Tim's dad is more of an adventurous intermediate than a rockstar skier, so the terrain over on that side of the mountain suited him better.
Tim and I headed down toward Collins, but did two laps on Wildcat before meeting up with the maggot contingent including but not limited to: McWop, Endlessseason, Buzzworthy, Teledave and many others whose names now escape me. We lapped Collins, finding pretty good snow off the High-T and various other ridiculously rutted traverses that wind through Alta. After a quick lunch at the base of Collins, Tim and I split from the maggot crew in search of better snow. While the terrain we found might not have been as steep as what we skiied earlier in the day, the snow was far, far better.
The afternoon was spent lapping the Supreme chair, skiing the chutes and gullies under the lifts and in Catherines and hiking out to an eerily untracked East Castle. The snow in East Castle wasn't deep or blower, it was untracked windbuff that was fast, carvy and super sweet to arc huge turns through. Dropping in just shy of the first noticeable cliff band, the snow was soft and fun, and only got deeper once we entered the trees below. We headed into Devils Castle only to be cliffed out and forced to turn around and ski down through the trees.
Our second lap in East Castle made us decide to hike above the normal traverse into the steep trees brimming with powder. 20 minutes of uphill sidestepping, we traversed over a ways and marvelled at the views spread out before us. Looking uphill about 10 yards from us, we noticed a 4-sided plastic fin buried in the snow, it was transparent reddish in color. Neither of us knew what this was, but I thought there was an outside chance it could be some kind of avy control explosive that didn't detonate? Can anyone confirm, or deny this? From what we saw if it, it seemed to be a projectile, but I'm no explosives expert. Deciding to play it safe, we booked it down through the trees, hitting the main traverse and linking up steep trees with wide open bowl skiing, and back into mellower trees below.
One more lap up Supreme would finish our day at Alta before retiring to the GMD for apres-ski with the maggots. Poking into the woods along the way, I found a gully near the bottom of the lift that held the deepest snow of the day. I only saw 2 or 3 sets of tracks down it, so I thought it would be a crusty terrain trap. Finding a spot to drop in where I could make my way out if need be, I was shocked at the deepness of the snow. Arcing turns off the walls through knee deep snow and rocketing down the gut, I whooped with glee. On three days of our trip, the last run we skiied on each day turned out the be the best run. I can only imagine that gully during or after a big storm, it would be simply unreal. The same goes for much of the terrain off of Supreme, chutes and tight trees funnel into meadows and more chutes, covered in 3 feet of new, it would be the ultimate playground. I'd take that area over the High-T and Collins damn near any powder day.
Riding the transfer tow to the GMD, I look up at the peaks surrounding me with a shit-eating grin on my face, I just skiied knee deep, basically untracked powder at Alta 10+ days after a storm, without any kind of local guidance. It was a proud moment made even better by the Alpenglow illuminating Mount Superior across the road.
12/18- Final Ski Day. Snowbird.
Saturday, our final day, mountain number 8 on day number 8, was at Snowbird. Thanks to Buzz, we got hooked up with the 2 fer 1 lift ticket deal and headed up the tram. We managed to grab first tram Saturday, and didn't see any maggots on the way up or down. Whule trying to get back to the tram, we ended up at the bottom of Gadzoom chair, which we rode up and finally made our way back to the tram. We met up with the maggot contingent on the tram deck shortly thereafter.
Seeing the terrain Snowbird has to offer, the mountain would be unreal with lots of new snow, but many places were almost too steep to ski in the hardpacked conditions that exisisted on our day there. A fall would have resulted in a slide for life scenario, so we stuck to terrain that was mellow, at least by Snowbird standards. Conditions were average at best Saturday, better than 'Basin and PCMR, but worse than anywhere else we skiied. A couple fast laps through Mineral Basin showcased the terrain back there, while the size of the open bowl skiing was impressive, the actual terrain didn't illicit the kind of repsonse that Alta did. Again, the snow conditions probably had a lot to do with this. Poking around in the trees yielded mindly better results, but still, this mountain gets hammered harder and skiied out more than anywhere else we skiied.
Despite the epic early season snowfalls, rocks were still prevalent basically everywhere on the mountain. This wasn't much of any issue for us, since they were easily visible, but it really hammers home the point of how steep and rugged this mountain really is. The terrain to the lookers left of the tram looked simply amazing, but I didn't get the chance to ski over there, since I left around 12:30 or 1:00 to start packing up for the flight home. Between that and not skiing The Cirque, I probably missed the best of Snowbird, but conditions and my parents dictated otherwise.
The drive down the canyon that early afternoon officially wrapped up the trip for me. My dad was pissed about missing Alta and Snowbird, and my mom wasn't terribly fond of Utah. For that reason, I don't think I'll be headed back until I'm old enough to go it alone. For those of you familiar with my shitty ski trip luck, this means the next 2 seasons after this one will be epic 800+ inchers in utah, and as soon as I can get back out west to ski, the entire region will dry up.
It was a great trip and great to meet so many maggots, despite the overall shittiness of the weather and snow. If we take any more western trips while I'm still living with my parents, we will probably change the way in which we do them. Instead of booking months in advance and all but sealing the deal for high pressure and warm temps, we'll try to swing last minute, storm chasing trips. One of the benefits of me having 3 week+ long Christmas and Spring breaks. I'm hoping to head out again next year, but it isn't likely, so for now, I'll be sequestered to skiing the east coast for a while.
I hope everyone enjoyed reading my rather lengthy TR, and hopefully I can get some pictures up here as soon as possible.
My Overall Ranking of the Mountains we skiied(factoring in snow as well)
1. Solitude
2. Brighton (you can't argue with thigh deep pillow lines)
3. Alta (would replace Brighton as #2 if the snow was as good as it usually is)
4. The Canyons
5. Snowbasin
6. Snowbird
7. Deer Valley (liked it, but only since I skiied there for free, not worth $75/day)
8. PCMR, instead of spending $70+ to ski here, spend 2 days at Brighton or Solitude.
