Utah Heading to Utah this weekend for 7 days. Need advice on where to ski.

[dbostedo]

Any advice on where to ski on Saturday and Sunday to avoid the crowds?

Alberta, Canada

 

[Crank]

I would consider Uber and have them stop at a grocery store. Options for buying food are very limited and a bit expensive at Snowbird.

My son and I stayed at Iron Blossam for a week 4 seasons back. We did not buy Alta/bird passes but took the free bus up to Alta half the days and were able to easily ski back to Snowbird off Wildcat lift. There is a decent hot tub at Iron Blossam so don't forget bathing suits.

I have said this before and will say it again... People often advertise their time share weeks on SLC Craigslist and ridiculously good deals can be found.

 

[BobMc]

Last week I had an Uber driver a couple cars ahead of me in the line-up. He had two clients in the car with him, their snowboards up top on a roof rack. Their boots were strapped into the boards on top of the vehicle. It was about 10 degrees and lightly snowing, I'm sure booting up was fun when they got there.

 

[Chickenmonkey]

That does sound like fun. We are going to be the test lab and will report back on Uber/Lyft Ski. Vacation is supposed to be an adventure right?

Also, question about Ikon Pass, is it an Altabird pass or individual passes for Alta and Snowbird. Trying to figure out if skiing across resorts on one day will cost us twice.

 

[Ogg]

That does sound like fun. We are going to be the test lab and will report back on Uber/Lyft Ski. Vacation is supposed to be an adventure right?

Also, question about Ikon Pass, is it an Altabird pass or individual passes for Alta and Snowbird. Trying to figure out if skiing across resorts on one day will cost us twice.

It counts as one day.

 

[Chickenmonkey]

Everyone skiing ~95 mm skis right now and for the next week?

 

[BobMc]

Don’t overthink it. I have a quiver of one pair of skis (115 atw), one pair of goggles with one lens, one coat, one pair of pants, one pair of gloves. It makes life easier and cheaper.

 

[Chickenmonkey]

Don’t overthink it. I have a quiver of one pair of skis (115 atw), one pair of goggles with one lens, one coat, one pair of pants, one pair of gloves. It makes life easier and cheaper.

Yes you are completely correct and that also leaves me with nothing to obsess about when I am not actually skiing.

 

[Kyle]

Everyone skiing ~95 mm skis right now and for the next week?

95-105 should be money for the next couple of days. Depending on where you ski, you may want to err on the wider side since there are a lot of areas that have not been open for quite a few days at Snowbasin for example.

 

[Chickenmonkey]

Uber Ski worked great. DM me if you want the drivers info. Came with a Suburban without a rack and all skis in the ski luggage went inside.

 

[bmoreiskier]

I was out in Utah two weeks ago for the first time after years of skiing jackson hole annually along with VT and some trips to Whistler, Whitefish, and Telluride. My take is if you are ok with jackson hole you will like Alta and Snowbird. We stayed at a hampton in cottonwood heights and rented a car. It was cheap, but if i go again i think i would look into staying at snowbird given the road.. The first day we skied Atla, no new snow and easy 20 min drive. Then the next 3 days it snowed 3ft plus which resulted in road closures for avalanche work, chain/snow tire restrictions, and crowds. Decided to take the snow bus which took 2.5 hours to get to Alta-cops looking at every car going into canyon to verify tires. Was a sunday, but ridiculous. Next two days bus took about an hour and the day we left road NEVER opened.

As for the skiing my brother and I preferred Snowbird as it seemed steeper overall and required less traveling/hiking to access interesting terrain. We spent a lot of time off the gadzoom lift skiing immd left off the lift to traverse beneath the gad chutes and skiing refilled powder all day as the windblown snow was piling in this area. The snow was blowing and visibility was tough so didn't spend much time in the more open terrain but did manage one run on barry barry steep which was great. The GAD chair also has a lot of interesting terrain and some great tree skiing. I thought the trail markings were a bit lacking and it was tough to tell exactly what you were skiing trail wise, but if you are ok with the steepness of the Cirque at jackson you will be ok most of the time. The other unique, compared to JH, thing was that there are a lot of avalanche control gates you have to ski through to access in bounds terrain complete with scary warnings and expert only double black signage. Made me a bit hesitant first time we went through a new one given like you i am not interested in jumping cliffs, but never ran into anything that that wasn't marked as a cliff. They are also very concerned about avalanches and as such when we had the snow a good deal of terrain was closed, such as mineral basin.

At Alta we enjoyed the steeper and less crowed runs off wildcat. Traverse skier's left off the chair and pick a line through the trees once the bowl ends, some nice steep lines in there and good place to get perspective when visibility bad. I enjoyed High Greeley and Greeley bowl, wide open and good pitch for powder skiing though a long traverse to get to and tough to lap given have to take the rope tow back to collins chair-not too crowded though as a result. Alta in general had "hairier" traverses, single track and full of rollers-something to know if that is not your thing. Catherine's area off of Supreme was fun as well, about a 5 minute walk and a 5 minute or so traverse to get to some interesting chutes and trees. You'll love it, have fun!

 

[Lofcaudio]

I'll be arriving tomorrow and am also staying in the valley and renting a car. I've never had problems before getting up the canyon roads, but this season seems to be pretty unique. Now I'm worried I may not be able to get up to Alta/Bird. Back-up plan will be Snowbasin or Brighton.

 

[AmyPJ]

Even if traveling to Snowbasin, you need AWD/4WD/snows. Please. Forecast is for snow tomorrow, and a decent amount.

 

[Captain Furious]

Skiing has been fantastic so far. Unfortunately, my son is dehydrated today so we're going to need to take it easy. Any suggestions besides water and electrolytes? Thanks.

Bill

 

[raytseng]

Skiing has been fantastic so far. Unfortunately, my son is dehydrated today so we're going to need to take it easy. Any suggestions besides water and electrolytes? Thanks.

Bill

see if your room has a humidifier tucked in the closet (or 2) call front desk if they have one for you. they had them at snowbird inn when i stayed. If it is the hot steam ones that is best. but the evap or cold mist are good too. Run that basically continuously when you are in the room and refill before sleeping. rinse it out every so often for betterperformance.
When you shower just leave the door open and dont use the fan so the shower humidity goes to your room too.

it may also be the altitude, see my prev post. if you are not feeling better and not skiing today, you may want to descend to salt lake for the day, take the bus down and go watch a movie or see the sights.

 

[Captain Furious]

He was just dehydrated. Now he understands the importance of staying well-hydrated. After he felt better, we got out for some turns and ripped it up for 3 hours. I needed those damn O2 shots b/c I was so exhausted skiing so hard. Thank God for those things!

Bill

 

[Lofcaudio]

My trip was just about perfect.

Thursday: Snowbasin (caught the rope drop on Sisters Bowl...could not feel the bottom! Also saw Phil and Tricia at breakfast.)
Friday: Alta (4" of new reported...felt more like 8...two runs of untracked in Ballroom and Catherine's was deep and soft as silk)
Saturday: Snowbird (not bad for a weekend...most of Mineral Basin was sun-baked, Little Cloud area and runs off of Road to Provo were good)
Sunday: Alta (no new snow, but there were some rope drops which got the powder junkies in jerk-mode, Catherine's was still soft)
Monday: Snowbasin (no new snow reported, but I skied powder on every run...Strawberry never opened, and the wind kept refilling the tracks making for an unbelievably good day)

Sorry locals...my friends fell in love with Utah skiing, with Alta and Snowbasin being the highlights.