Yesterdays sleeper pow day was awesome! thank you , ill have another!
Does anybody who which is the fastest way to go up from the base in Park City? Can you get dropped off to one of those lifts that are accessible by road but don't have any parking? e.g. Iron Mountain. We are staying at Marriott Mountainside. @Wasatchman ?
Also, any experience with Jans in Park City. I went to a local ski shop (CalSkiCo) to get boots but they are out of stock for what would fit me. They recommended Fischer vacuum fit for me and Jans has them in stock. I called Gorsuch & Cole Sports; they don't have Fischer boots.
I’ve seen this a bunch the past few years at Snowbasin which is attached to some pretty gnarly avalanche terrain. Today’s UAC forecast warned of some areas of considerable danger. I saw evidence of lots of long running deep sloughs yesterday, along with a few fresh snow avalanches reported nearby.I had an excellent day skiing at Brighton on Thursday, but I wanted to share some observations about people venturing into the backcountry and see what the folks here think. Brighton has a bunch of accessible backcountry gates that you can get back into the resort from, so you can essentially lap the backcountry run after run from the lifts. I talked to a bunch of people on the lifts who were lapping the backcountry, and while some appeared to be well equipped and know that they were doing, I also talked with (or listened in on conversations with) three different groups who didn't appear to have any avalanche gear (maybe they had beacons on but they had no backpacks, so no shovels/probes/airbags). The groups without avalanche gear were all from out-of-state, including a group who had rental skis on. Perhaps these people knew the terrain well and weren't skiing anything avalanche prone, but my gut says that these people had no idea that they could be putting themselves in danger. I understand how tempting it can be.
It felt like people just have a cavalier attitude about Brighton's backcountry gates? Or maybe I just happened to ride up with the minority who don't really know what they're doing ?
I got in and out early today. Wasn’t going to go at all but I had some unfinished business to take care of. I left at noon and have never seen so many cars parked on the road. I am wondering if a bunch of people who did not have passes this year just bought next years pass which allows them to ski the rest of this season. Combined with it being a powder day maybe this was the reason it was so crazy busy. I can’t imagine the adaptive school demo day could attract that many people? Funny thing is the past three days have been pretty mellow compared to the rest of the season. Today was insane!Gave up trying to ski Snowbasin today as there was no parking to be had. I have never seen anywhere close to the number of cars trying to park at Snowbasin—it was much worse than the worst Christmas vacation day I had seen. Not sure if it was that bad on the slopes but the parking was beyond a mess.
Still contemplating going up for an hour and a half in the late afternoon.
Hopefully more details to come -
Ogden area backcountry adjacent to Snowbasin
A party of three triggered an avalanche on a party of two below. One member in the party of two was caught, carried and partially buried. No injuries or lost gear reported.
this stump almost got me at Solitude - skiing a double black solo flying around a blind turn - i had to throw them sideways and bang into the stump for a hard stop
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got out of that unscathed and had a terrific day of shredding - snowpack is so deep right now everything is skiing great
blackke, I took this photo of my son on Parachute at Solitude 8 years ago. No way it's the same stump?
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If we ever end up at Snowbird on the same day I'd love to make a couple runs with you. But I don't think I could keep up for longer than that. You are one of my Utah idols, stay safe.
I skied Park City for the first time in years today with my family. Normally, we ski at Deer Valley, but lessons at Deer Valley were all booked out yesterday and today for a family member who wanted one, so she got a lesson at Park City and we all spent the day there. Here's what I liked and didn't like about Park City, after spending a lot of time at Deer Valley.
What I liked:
- I forgot how much phenomenal terrain Park City has (specifically the old Park City side of the mountain)! I took the Jupiter lift for the first time, and loved how you had to hike/traverse to access a bunch of the terrain. That helps preserve snow for people who are willing to work for it. When the snow conditions are right it looked like there was a ton of fun terrain on Pinecone Ridge. Much more expert terrain than Deer Valley.
- Views - I hiked up to Jupiter Peak, and was astounded by how great the views were. You can see the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon from the top ( I was looking to see if I could see signs of Solitude but couldn't notice any).
- Odd lift layout - made it easy to get away from crowds. While some lifts were crowded (see below), other lifts like Thaynes, Motherlode, and Jupiter had no lines
- Being able to ski into town is super neat for a vacationer like myself. Not many places where you can do that
What I didn't like:
Overall I had a good day. If I lived in Park City, I would get passes to both Deer Valley and PCMR. There is so much terrain I would love to explore. That said, Deer Valley actually felt a lot more "premium" after skiing at Park City. The food, the customer service, the whole ambiance felt a lot better at Deer Valley.
- The lines for some of the major lifts, like Bonanza, Silverlode, and King Con were fairly long for a weekday. Longer than the lines at the major Deer Valley lifts yesterday
- I was very underwhelmed by the food, especially for how much they were charging
- Odd lift layout - made it difficult to get to/from places. Park City is similar to Deer Valley in that both mountains have lots of different terrain pods, but no fall lines runs that go from the top to the bottom, in contrast to a Snowbasin or Snowbird
- Similar to Deer Valley, some of the connector trails or "easy ways down" were VERY crowded, almost dangerously so, while most of the advanced terrain had hardly anybody on it. Not sure if there's really a solution here. I appreciated all of the signs telling people to slow down and stay in control
That said, Deer Valley actually felt a lot more "premium" after skiing at Park City. The food, the customer service, the whole ambiance felt a lot better at Deer Valley.