Snowbird Parking and low tide opening
A few of us are speculating about Snowbird's aggressive early terrain opening this season. This is NOT a complaint! We've never seen terrain open so quickly with a relatively minimal snowpack. It's definitely rock ski conditions to access many lines, but the skiing has been SO good. Rat's Nest into Great Scott has been open for a week [steep dirt entry], and yesterday they even opened sharkey upper Scott off the ridge, and the bony Cirque Traverse offers cautious access to great mid cirque shots.
The parking reservation system has many befuddled, and my thought is that they must have a parking quota linked to available terrain, hence the rapid terrain opening so they can add more parking. [??]
People are frustrated that many parking days are booked up well into next year. However, every Monday at noon more reservations become available, but you have to be quick on the trigger as they disappear.
Of course there is the fact that early skier compaction is always a good way to stabilize the rotten snowpack [somewhat], and that can be good affect, short term...
It is not uncommon to see deep fractures and slides in the Cirque [with control work], as storms load it up even after heavy traffic. This may be increasingly possible in the side country this season with increased usage everywhere.
Tomorrow's storm should create an interesting test of the LCC road restrictions and parking rules, and a prelude to holiday madness.
Safe travels everyone, enjoy!