Utah Little Cottonwood Canyon 2018-2019, Reports, Pics, and Banter

[silverback]

Bought them last September. Fun skis. Mine have yellow pivots. I've probably seen you at Alta.
I'm not always skiing these.
I decided to get several powder ski designs to compare and learn what I like this season since my go-to DPS skis are getting a little long in the tooth. Perfect season for this experiment!

 

[Ryan Dietrich]

Just got back from Snowbird. Freaking incredible conditions. Had such a lovely day today. But I think my season is done for a bit, as one of the buckles on my *new* ski boots bent 45 degrees. Are Dalbello boots this flimsy? My previous boots (Nordica) lasted 8 seasons!

 

[blackke17]

Bird skied well Monday - probably 3 inches of fresh - lines were no factor

i'd check with Dalbello on the boots . they warrantied me a new pair when a rivet popped on my old pair

 

[blackke17]

working on my tan at the Bird yesterday - offpiste the snow was real hooky and tail grabbing in most areas i tried before noon .

got pretty sloppy and wet by 1 when the beer patio sounded better than skiing any longer



really wish the IKON gave you 7 days at Alta and 7 at Snowbird. what makes them any different than DV or Brighton? ( yeah i had to buy a day pass since im out of LCC days)

 

[Ryan Dietrich]

working on my tan at the Bird yesterday - offpiste the snow was real hooky and tail grabbing in most areas i tried before noon .

got pretty sloppy and wet by 1 when the beer patio sounded better than skiing any longer

really wish the IKON gave you 7 days at Alta and 7 at Snowbird. what makes them any different than DV or Brighton? ( yeah i had to buy a day pass since im out of LCC days)

That is awesome, you are awesome. My boot is gonna take weeks to get fixed, but hopefully I'll be out for 4th of July!

 

[blackke17]

Sure will be awesome if we can go shred on the 4th!

 

[dbostedo]

what makes them any different than DV or Brighton?

Maybe it's that they know they can sell you late season day passes!

 

[BobMc]

Camped Memorial day weekend, busted camp early Monday and made it up to ski.

Caught fish.





Memorial day bbq’d on top of the parking structure.



Reports of morning rain kept me home Saturday. Went up Sunday, got there at 8:45 and the bypass was almost full to the top. Skied with Travis and son in the morn and chased my buddy Lori around till closing. Cloud cover kept things skiing pretty well.

Coverage remaining is amazing, no bare patches on Emma at all, Bass highway thick and death road is even still in play.



Mineral early, I like to traverse out below Baldy and get the smoothest of snow cones.



Afternoon clouds making their way up the canyon.

 

[blackke17]

Camped Memorial day weekend, busted camp early Monday and made it up to ski.

Caught fish.

nice looking wiper!

i figured you were still getting some turns in

 

[jmills115]

I got a late start today after picking up some new shoes yesterday. With my skis strapped to my back and only being on snowshoes one day prior, I had an easier time today

The shorts were a good idea even though I was caught in a little rain


I parked at Wildcat base and had a goal to get up top on Baldy and ski Main Chute




Looking west towards the kitty


I made the choice to to go direct up Baldy instead of looping around and coming up the back.
mrsjmills was nice enough to watch the Alta mountain cams and caught me climbing up Ballroom At this point I realized I made a mistake as the visible slides were soft and deep. I changed my goal to make it to a rock to boot up.


Seeing a ledge that looked better than the rock I had my eye on I had an easy time sliding the Zipfits on.
Stepping into my boots with the Zips on got my heart beating faster than the climb up.
View attachment 75245




Since I didn’t make it up Baldy I cut across Ballroom and the Shoulder and carried enough speed to leave myself an easy boot pack to ski Westward Ho. With lesser sun in the trees the snow was pretty good.

 

[blackke17]

Yesterday was probably the best spring conditions I've hit yet at the Bird!! Snow was great from 930-2 when i was there. never got too slushy , hero snow all day

definitely seeing alot more brown up there. below is Mineral -


just barely had enough snow to ski all the way back down from Little cloud to the tram .

 

[blackke17]

Bob, you heard any news on closing?

 

[jmills115]

6/11 at Alta. With a new-used pack that I am able to put my boots into instead of using the booster straps to attach to the old pack straps, I decided to attempt to walk up High Rustler.
With about 20 yards to go I decided to call it early and booted up in a group of trees


I was happy I used the proper wax that matched the bark conditions

The snow doesn’t look great but skied pretty well in the upper section.

 

[Tricia]

@jmills115 This kinda makes you my hero. I've never skied High Rustler, but I need to. Hiking it in June is RAD!

 

[blackke17]

6/11 at Alta. With a new-used pack that I am able to put my boots into instead of using the booster straps to attach to the old pack straps, I decided to attempt to walk up High Rustler.
With about 20 yards to go I decided to call it early and booted up in a group of trees

I bet that was really fun up top! well done man

those small snowshoes you wear look really interesting. i don't know if id be so brave to attempt this with my 27" wildhorn outfitter models

 

[BobMc]

Bob, you heard any news on closing?

They're still planning on making it to the 4th, not sure if that will happen. Friday through Sunday this weekend and then Saturday's and Sunday's till they run out of snow.

 

[jmills115]

I bet that was really fun up top! well done man

those small snowshoes you wear look really interesting. i don't know if id be so brave to attempt this with my 27" wildhorn outfitter models

I booted up leaning on the tree out of necessity. I was struggling to keep both shoes on the snow and getting tired fast and fought to not become a rocket ship sliding down the run.
This was the second time using the Verts.

 

[jmills115]

They're still planning on making it to the 4th, not sure if that will happen. Friday through Sunday this weekend and then Saturday's and Sunday's till they run out of snow.

Has the gate to Pipeline been open?

 

[BobMc]

Has the gate to Pipeline been open?

Twins touring gate was open on Sunday, but I don’t believe Pipeline itself was in play, leave resort only. Baldy to the top was open, and the gate at Bomar’s pass was also open. These were all open mostly because of a hard refreeze, lacking an overnight refreeze most of those gates will be closed. IOW, they’re all usually weather dependent.

Edit: Pipeline has a pretty big runnel in the middle of it that would make it interesting.

 

[blackke17]

cat track to Harper's ferry down from Little Cloud is getting seriously thin- be riding the tram back down starting this weekend. soft and mushy real early today - 830 early -last nights lightning storm didn't do us any favors

no complaints tho, we are still shredding!