Alta is already driving Ikon traffic to Snowbird by not granting any access on the more affordable "Base" pass. Ikon Base get's you 5 days at the Bird, zero at Alta.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dantheman
Alta is already driving Ikon traffic to Snowbird by not granting any access on the more affordable "Base" pass. Ikon Base get's you 5 days at the Bird, zero at Alta.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dantheman
Can I just say that I hate the assholes that when going down canyon get into the turn lane and pretend they are turning into SB entry 1, only to keep going straight. Their sole purpose is to just skip ahead of 40 cars or so. Fucking savages.
Same guys that pass you near White Pine on the way up when it is already bumper-to-bumper. Got get ahead by 15 seconds... I wish vehicular manslaughter wasn't a thing, I'd buy a beater and just push those douchebags off the road...
Any recommended spots where a guy can park a camper near LCC and/or Snowbasin? Looking at driving my camper out to use my MC next month.
I'm near snowbasinQuote:
Originally Posted by Name Redacted
Tfw is near little
PM me mag
(look at that haiku)
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Nice, thanks! I'll hit y'all up when I have a more solid plan.Quote:
Originally Posted by tgapp
This guy was parked at the Highland Dr P&R for over a week. Hadn't moved two weekends in a row so presumably no one hassled him. Easy access to the 994 bus, short walk to grocery stores, a couple restaurants, and a gym. Pretty nice view of Twin, too. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2c2da96524.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by Name Redacted
So is it just a total charlie foxtrot to get up to Alta all the time, or just on weekends and Holidays? How is it midweek? Midweek pow days?
It is kind of funny that on a Monday after 21" of really great snow and some relative stability for this year - that this thread is the one that is going off! Any who - the zipper is sacred! and roadside parking is the devil!
Sam's club in Murray. Directly next to interstate. Huugge, quiet, no hassle. Planet fitness shower few blocks up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Name Redacted
I almost saw Jake, udot road manager for the canyons plows, almost die Saturday. He was helping to get a car out of the ditch when the vehicle in front of me went fully sideways and missed hitting him and his truck by inches.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoosiePoo
The sticker program is a complete joke at this point. But it’s really just beta testing for something down the road. I’ve said for years that ticketing cars in the parking lots is the best enforcement/deterrence. But Utah law doesn’t allow for it. Plus they do it at Mt Hood and they still have infamous Govy five hundred .
The road parking situation is unreal and I have no doubt in my mind that bird management isn’t really there to help Alta. Any sense of that ended last year with a certain letter to the editor by a certain high level manager.
The truth is it only takes one shitty driver to fuck the entire canyon. One day last year I left entry one at three pm. Car in front of me was going three mph. I passed and never saw a car in my rear view mirror the entire unbelievably peaceful drive down. My co workers from Alta had a three hour commute that day. That one car started the whole thing.
I also witnessed a bus slide down the entire first section of the bypass road this year. So that’s not the solution.
The head of all of Udot is an lcc guy. Carlos moved out west to work at the bird. I know he wants to make it better. But in a reality it’s a tiny piece in his puzzle of managing all state roads and road projects.
The limited parking in lcc is the one single thing saving it from itself. Bad drivers is a problem that will never be fixed. Especially on a steep road with hardly any guardrails where it snows a ton. I’ve been in Tahoe before where it took 2 hours to drive from palisades to tahoe city. And that’s basically flat in comparison. Any time and place where demand overwhelms capacity a shit show ensues.
Weekends, holidays, pow days, and road closure mornings all require a lot of patience (or you need to leave super early or late). Midweek with no new snow (like today) you can do 45+ mph the whole way (unless you catch the Red Snake 500 pace car).Quote:
Originally Posted by jables
I had a old surfer buddy that spent three months in his truck with a huge hardside camper there. Never had an issue. He never drove up canyon but did drive around the valley and wasn’t always parked in the exact same spot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dantheman
The real issue is the service capacity of the road. On a clear dry day the road can handle call it 2000 cars per hour without major delays. On a snowy day that number can drop to call it 500 CPH. The only way to fix the issue is to restrict private vehicles going up canyon, which isn't going to happen. No number of snow sheds, busses, zipper merge educational videos, or cute stickers will fix the basic problem.
Then of course bake in a little NIMBYism, who really wants to allow more people up canon. More people means longer lift lines, and more Jerrys shredding your pow stashes. Keeping people out makes your experience better.
Another compounding factor is I have not yet met someone in Utah who uses public transit, of course these people exist, but when I tell my friends we should take TRAX or take the 994 or 953 bus they look at me like I am absolutely insane. "Well..... I would but I have to drive for xxx reason, maybe if they added more busses it would be better and I could take the bus, they should really add more busses, fuck the gondola. But yeah I can't take the bus today, I have a dog, can you drive?".
One bad day on the bus (not getting picked up because it's full, getting stuck on the bus for 2-3 hours getting down canyon when you have to piss really bad) really turned me off from the bus and I for the most part love public transportation.
All I want is more buses. That's it. I wouldn't even mind the ridiculously long drives up and down the canyon if I knew that going to a PNR at 7AM means I can get a seat on the bus and that I can leave at 2 or 3 and not have to engage in hand to hand combat with families to get back down before 8 at night. Travesty that 2 years ago we had 15 minute buses, and now with more visitors than ever we're at 30. Can't believe that somebody isn't intentionally fucking it to serve a personal agenda
Riding the bus only makes sense now on days that aren't crowded, ie the same days where driving is also no problem. On fuck all pow days the bus is a non option
By god you solved it:Quote:
Originally Posted by Bojangles Mgillicutty
Bus reservations.
I paid for the cottonwood connect a couple times last year and would 100% do it again if it existed
i existQuote:
Originally Posted by Yukonrider
dozenth bus day yesterday. basin and powder. it’s j1 and codger central. one of the basin drivers is showing the pit viper beater 500 how it’s done. kinda scary actually. but it’s an amazing service up here.
Fine by me.Quote:
Originally Posted by jsnowut
Exactly, and paradoxically so does the road anxiety. The road drama last weekend undoubtedly scared a bunch of people away this weekend. The other key to the good life in LCC is learning to love the marginal days. The worst day in LCC is the best day at many, many places.Quote:
Originally Posted by altacoup
Lies! It's totally FUBAR all day every day!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dshack89
I take the bus frequently. There are varying degrees of suckage, but usually if you are OK with getting on after 10:00 and leaving by 3:00 it's fine for getting to/from Creekside. Alta or BCC is a different story, but that's someone else's problem. I have pretty good luck hitching down.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yukonrider
There is no free lunch. You can pay by going to Alta/Soli/Brighton and having guaranteed parking but a longer trip. You can pay by buying a Preferred Parking Pass or a daily reserved spot at Snowbird. You can pay by getting up early enough to get a free spot at Snowbird. You can pay by riding the bus with the unwashed masses. You can pay by leaving early to beat the snake even though you'd prefer to keep skiing. You can pay by skiing to the bell and sitting in your car or at the bar for a few hours. Pick your poison, or move to Michigan and ski blue ice on a reclaimed landfill.
Im just grateful this thread is working as intended and people are
I agree with dantheman, every option in the canyons has costs and benefits. They can tweak and make improvements, but supply exceeds demand and that wont change. I have found my faith and sacrifice of time rewarded, saturday after saturday, with pinch myself snowboarding. And yeah, those parking lots keep the riff raff down.
Long live the snake
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DTM for the win ^^^ lots of truth in that post. It's a game and the variables change all the time. Some get tired and drop out, but there are more than 100 to take their place when they do. If it wasn't fucking amazing a lot of us probably wouldn't play. Let's just hope the march continues to 450+ this year!
100$ a car on big days
Question... I may be driving through SLC area and try to sneak up to alta for a day. On a normal weekend (non pow) does catching the early 994 from Sandy reliably work? Meaning, can you show up for say the 630am bus and get a seat or standing spot? I dig buses and don't want to contribute to the LCC problem!
Presumably if its a snow day, all bets are off.
Thx much!
Yes, ive done this several times this year and it works well. I dont think you need to go that early tbh, but if you are a morning person it will be a breeze. I personally enjoy my predawn lodge time, theres something really nice and almost reverent about the gmd/tram bunker at that timeQuote:
Originally Posted by tang
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That's plenty early for a non-pow day, probably earlier than necessary. My MO on non-pow days is to catch the 10:10 at Highland and there's usually few enough people on that I get a seat.
Anybody who says Ikon hasn’t changed anything doesn’t ski blackout weekends. Walk on trams all day Saturday and it was a powder day. Sunday and Monday were ski on as well.
^^^ Thx Crank and Dan... good to know. And yes, I also like getting up early-early and just chillin in the lodge
Not to be a pinhead, but you have to assume that some percentage of those base ikoneers are locals that would buy bird and alta passes if there wasnt an $800 pass that gave them what they wanted. But its a guess how many, and ikon coincided with a huge influx of <mountains are calling and i must go> folks. And people are shook when it comes to cold weather for a nice extra depressant effect.Quote:
Originally Posted by detrusor
Id like to see the numbers from solitude for sat-monday. Either way, not a fan of the ikon at all. Pick a mountain and ski it. Trying to ski with everyone you know every winter is overrated
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Maybe, but those people could just buy a full Ikon for not much more and not have blackout dates, but they don't.Quote:
Originally Posted by crankplank
I can tell you that the sale of ikon base passes along the wasatch front is up and growing year after year as a percentage of all types of season pass sales in the area. For the people who ski ten to twenty days a year it’s really a no brainer to buy that pass. Resorts like Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Snowbasin are hesitant to raise their pass prices too much or risk more flight to ikon. Ikon pass has definitely decreased the skier experience along the wasatch front.
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Also remember that Solitude is now unlimited on base pass, no more blackout days (changed that in like December)
I agree and have the same observation, most people i talk to, especially transplants, get 20 days and go to big sky or steamboat every year.Quote:
Originally Posted by altacoup
My point is, if there wasnt an 800 dollar pass, some of those people would just go once or twice, but I suspect a lot would find the extra 500 for alta/bird/brighton. And theres just more people with the means and will in the valley than there used to be. Take ikon base away, and im not sure that the bird gets quieter. Solitude filters out a lot of people every weekend. I could be wrong, im really just hypothesizing here. The early season crowds at brighton the last few years tell me they are selling a ton of 1000-1300 passes.
My strongest observation of late is im hearing a lot of mandarin in LCC and at btown. Theres always been intl visitors, but this feels like a marked trend.
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I love all these arguments that if the ikon base pass didn’t exist all these skiers that use the ikon pass will magically stop skiing lol
*** Stop skiing hereQuote:
Originally Posted by brutah
...so muchQuote:
Originally Posted by Yukonrider
That's the main thing with the cheap passes that work everywhere. A majority of folks used to buy lift tickets when they were cheaper, and those people skied less often. Now, when people can ski any time they want, they can go more often and they will concentrate wherever the snow falls most. It increases skier visits, which in turn increase revenue in the F&B and parking etc.
Oh well, just go skiing. When are they building that gondola?
Oh they'll keep skiing, but evidence suggests that they'll ski somewhere else.Quote:
Originally Posted by brutah
I've noticed a big difference at Snowbird on Ikon blackout days. Didn't make it up at all on MLK weekend but sounds like similar result.
The cold weather had a bigger impact, than the blackout.
Nevermind. Cant delete.