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

Tricia

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Just to clarify, are “Brooklyn Tracy” & “Tracy Price” two different people or is this an autocorrect gremlin?
Tracy was known as Brooklyn Tracy back when she lived in Brooklyn. Now she lives in Utah and teaches at Alta.
 

Phelmut

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I met Brooklyn Tracy at one of the first SLC Gatherings back in the Epic days.

I took a much needed lesson today at Snowbird and got some good pointers to focus on. Skied Great Scott for the first time and that was a confidence builder.

I planned on skiing a 1/2 day tomorrow before heading to the airport for a 3:15 flight which connects in Denver. Unfortunately (not) the flight has been canceled and I'll be forced to ski the entire day tomorrow and leave Thursday. I hate when that happens.

I was talking on the lift about how appetizing the pool looked when we had a Gathering event at the Cliff Lodge a few years back and learned that you can use the pool for a $25 spa fee. I actually brought my Speedo and will partake tomorrow night. I'll be at Alta/Snowbird tomorrow if anyone is around.
 

Johnny V.

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Snowbird was amazingly uncrowded today. We got there around 8:10 with fairly close parking and changed in the locker room. I was in the tram line around 8:45 and got on the first car with no problem. Headed to Mineral Basin and the bright sunshine. Did a few runs on the groomers waiting for the bowls to warm up. Tried a run through Ski Patrol Gully which was a mistake-chunky heavy snow (even thought it looked nice) made for a less than stellar run. Judy had taken the mountain tour and we met up for lunch. Took the tram up after lunch and were all set to do a run or two in the cirque when the light went flat. Coming off the tram we encountered these guys:

Two guys one pair of skis.jpg

Two guys, four bindings, four boots and a pair of skis..................you can't make this stuff up! We watched them come slowly down Regulator Johnson and caught a couple of pics as they went by.

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing front side bump runs as the snow softened. All in all a good day!
 

Phelmut

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Sitting in the Congo line going up the Canyon now Finally starting to move and hit 5 miles an HOUR. woot woot.
 

Jim Kenney

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Sitting in the Congo line going up the Canyon now Finally starting to move and hit 5 miles an HOUR. woot woot.
I'm taking today off. Mistake:doh: This little storm seems to be overproducing this morning. Hope you get to enjoy one more blast of Utah powder and still catch your flight. I think there's only a couple inches and streets are black out by the airport.
 

Michael V

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I skied Snowbird for a few hours this morning. Good visibility has been hard to come by in the last week due to a lot of snowy days. I know they say Mineral Basin is for tourists, but I guess that's what I am. It was really nice and I connected with @Phelmut for some nice runs.

View attachment 68067
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They opened the Bookends area after it had been closed. We were about 45 minutes late, but enjoyed sloppy seconds.
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Great to make runs with Phelmut. Safe travels!


I wish I could have been on the Snowbird side that morning with you guys.. But we were having fun over at Alta...

@Jim Kenney Thanks for the Advil on Sunday.. I duct taped my calf and took some more Advil, and skied like a champ on Monday. ...Couldn't walk afterwards, but at least I got to ski!
 
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Johnny V.

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I left the LCC battle up to you guys while I skied the trees at Brighton all day. Got up there a little after 8:00 without incident (except for a knucklehead who had to pass everyone on the way up). Snowed and refreshed throughout, but was getting very windy when I quit at about 2:30.

Someone said there was closure on the LCC road-did it happen so I can pat myself on the back for making the right decision?
 

givethepigeye

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I left the LCC battle up to you guys while I skied the trees at Brighton all day. Got up there a little after 8:00 without incident (except for a knucklehead who had to pass everyone on the way up). Snowed and refreshed throughout, but was getting very windy when I quit at about 2:30.

Someone said there was closure on the LCC road-did it happen so I can pat myself on the back for making the right decision?

Indeed it did. Was closed when I tried after my meeting - had work to catch up on. Think it opened back early afternoon.
 

Phelmut

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20190313_165026.jpg Another ridiculously fun day at Alta today. No pics as i was flying solo (missed Jmills). No hiking required to get to untouched pow. Free refills and still coming down good in Sandy now so tomorrow will be crazy good also.

Skied until just before 3 and then did the day pass at the Cliff Lodge spa. So cool to be in a pool and hot tub outside in a snow storm. Took a steam and cold shower afterwards and felt rejuvenated after 6 days of skiing.
 

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Jim Kenney

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View attachment 68405 Another ridiculously fun day at Alta today. No pics as i was flying solo (missed Jmills). No hiking required to get to untouched pow. Free refills and still coming down good in Sandy now so tomorrow will be crazy good also.

Skied until just before 3 and then did the day pass at the Cliff Lodge spa. So cool to be in a pool and hot tub outside in a snow storm. Took a steam and cold shower afterwards and felt rejuvenated after 6 days of skiing.

Money shot!
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Brian Likes Pow

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Road is closed and alta is interlodged at the moment. Im staying up here tonight. They say 8am but sometimes things get delayed. Selfish me would like a country club day tomorrow but i think things will wind down in time.
 

Tony

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The last two nights have been good ones to have been staying on the other side of parking lot from Snowbird - really all five nights have been so great that I have to consider buying into Iron Blosam so I can have my own unit and bring my wife to the party that Tony Crocker, his wife and 30+ friends put on during week 10. 7253Pilot@IronBlosamAM.JPG
I did not get out until 9:15 and after pulling my skis out of my SUV that was driven and snow-free on Tues, I put them on and skied down the driveway, then down three? short fight of stairs and crossed the road and skied down to Wilbere. The stairs had only been cleared on one side and I had no grinding on them or crossing the road where snow was dirty, but coverage was OK. Wilbere stopped twice, with the second one kind of long. It also was stopped when I rode it later to avoid slog (due to new snow) back to Gad 2 when employee apparently misloaded. I saw him climbing back up to re-load.

Snow early was too dry and not usually deep enough to avoid hitting bottom, but was still fun. Wind was howling at top of Little Cloud which along with drifts made it hard to stay on traverse to Regulator. But LC along with the tram ran all day. In this picture taken before 10, it looked like sun was going to come out, but it never did. 7255LittleCloudBefore10.JPG Mineral never opened and Peruvian was delayed. Even without staying on the traverse, it was possible to get to Middle Cirque which I went past and came down Glen's as sub-surface was soft enough that the 8" overnight and 4-6" that fell by 10 AM skied well.

I rode Gad 2 with Bruce from Maine, who has been staying at the Cliff Lodge and skiing everyday that it has been good since early Jan. I told him I didn't really get the point of the lift as it seemed like there were a lot of flats and traverses to get to short and often bumpy, treed and cliffy steeps. He shared with me a place he'd found where steep and mostly untracked was long and he also had some good ways to go the rest of the way down. After doing that twice, we went up Little Cloud and skied steep and deep South Chute to the tram.

We had a two tram wait, then skied down the Cirque Traverse to Barry Barry Steep which was OK although some of it probably slid so we skied shots next to it. He went back to the Cliff to see if his wife was ready to go out and I rode Gadzoom and Gad 2, then joined small group from Iron Blossom at mid-Gad for lunch.

After lunch, lizardqueen led us down Gad 2 to lookers right of the chair (first time I went that way this trip) and went into trees past Bananas where after nearly getting cliffed out, some of us found some deep untracked just past the ropeline. We skied to Baby Thunder which we rode a few times as everyone was enjoying the low-angle deep and very dry new snow there. I gave some powder tips and tree-well warnings to the group that including father and son from New Jersey who had just arrived the previous night and had never skied powder.

I left the group about 3 and got two rides on Little Cloud where wind seemed to be even worse, dropping into mid-Cirque on second lap about 3:30. I had time for a Peruvian lap and one on Wilbere before quitting after 4:30 with over 31K vertical. Some of the 30 year-olds in our group had 36K. Both are huge numbers, considering that most of it was in powder. 7258Pilot@440.JPG They are now reporting 30" for storm and we are Interlodged.
7261Interlodged.JPG
 
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Lofcaudio

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It's a conspiracy to keep the IKONers away!

So the IKON seems to be getting a lot of blame, especially from those leaving comments on Alta's blog. Logic seems to suggest that IKON is NOT the problem.

If there's another thread about this particular issue, I didn't see it but feel the need to add my two cents as a "tourist" who enjoys using a multi-resort pass (I use the MC). LCC only has overcrowding issues on weekends and (to a lesser extent) on powder days. Tourists are going to be skiing during the week when they are there on their vacation and typically do not pick-and-choose based upon snow conditions. I usually avoid weekends when at all possible just to stay clear of the locals who fill up the areas on those days. (Having said that, I just skied at Snowbird on a Saturday and had no problems driving up the canyon, parking, and getting on the first tram ride up. I left Sandy at 7:30 AM...piece of cake.)

I'm much more inclined to believe Alta's management that says that there has been a 3% increase in traffic due to IKON than an emotionally-charged local who says that 90% of the skiers at Alta are there with the IKON pass. There is a very real US vs. THEM mentality that wants to keep new people out of LCC. "Hey...we have a good thing going and want to keep this good thing all for ourselves." I guess as a non-local, I'm not welcome. Seems unfortunate.

If LCC has a problem, here's where the blame lies:
1) Great ski areas;
2) Banner snow year;
3) SLC-area population growth (see Colorado/Denver problems);
4) Exclusive ("powderhound") mentality.
 
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blackke17

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Wild one at Alta yesterday in the storm - my buddy got mixed up in canyon traffic issues but i made the lineup for one of the first 10 chairs on Wildcat . I rode the traverse and took an untracked plunge down the far end of the punch bowl. Big mistake in those whiteout conditions . I've skied this run at least 100 times but this time it got me. Vertigo hit me towards the bottom of the pitch which caused me to wipe out. took a while to gather myself and feel confident enough to slowly get to the bottom. visibilty was that brutal early in the morning! - went to the truck and sat down and slugged some water waiting on my bud to show up. the break did the trick .

After that I stuck to skiing the trees off Collins - love the high trees in spruces, fred's and that whole area. we ran a variety of lines from top to mid mountain station pretty much all day off of Collins. The snow was relentless!
 

Jim Kenney

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I am going to try to take the bus up LCC and ski Bird this PM.
Blackke and Tony, u guys are tuff mudders.
 

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